\ 


r 


\ 


°l 


' 


THE  COLONIES 

HISTORICAL    SEEIES 

X 

SECOND  BOOK 


BY 

HELEN  AINSLIE 

Author  of  "  The  Story  of  the  Thirteen  Colonies,"'1  "  One  Hundred 

Famous  Americans"   "Pictures  of  Persons  and 

Places  in  America"  etc.,  etc. 

EDITED    BY 

SAMUEL  T.  BUTTON 

Superintendent  of  Schools,  Brookline,  Mass. 


ILLUSTRATED 


THE  MORSE  COMPANY 

NEW  YORK  BOSTON 

1899 


Copyright,  1899, 

BY  SAMUEL  T.  BUTTON. 

AIL  rights  reserved. 

Second  Edition. 


AUTHOR'S   PREFACE. 


THE  pages  of  this  little  book  have  been  written 
with*  love  for  children  and  love  for  our  country, 
in  the  hope  of  presenting  to  boys  arid  girls  true 
and  interesting  pictures  of  how  the  Colonists  made 
their  homes  in  the  wilderness,  built  up  their  towns, 
their  counties,  and  their  miniature  states,  as  Old 
England's  provinces.  Effort  has  been  made  to  show 
how  the  people  resisted  encroachments  against 
their  trade  and  governments  on  the  one  hand, 
while,  on  the  other  hand,  they  defended  their  lives 
in  the  long  series  of  struggles  with  the  French 
and  their  Indian  allies,  which  ended  with  the  con 
quest  of  Canada,  in  1760.  At  the  same  time  we 
see  some  of  the  peculiar  characteristics  and  cus 
toms  of  the  many  European  peoples  who  came 
over  and  helped  to  plant  a  new  English  nation. 
Often  their  quaint  language  and  lawless  spelling 
has  been  given,  in  order  to  make  them  seem  the 
more  "like  folks." 

Beneath  all  that  may  be  amusing  or  interesting 

M750314L 


AUTHOR'S  PREFACE. 

is  a  serious  purpose  to  give  young  children  a 
coherent  notion  of  the  growth  of  the  settlers  into 
the  brave  and  independent  body  of  the  Thirteen 
Colonies,  and  to  show  how  they  grew,  as  children 
grow,  so  that  they  were  fit  to  take  care  of  them 
selves. 

The  events  selected  for  description  have  not 
been  so  numerous  nor  so  briefly  disposed  of  as  to 
court  the  criticism  that  has  been  heard  from  chil 
dren  on  their  own  school-books,  that  "  there  is  not 
enough  about  any  one  thing  to  make  it  interesting.7' 

During  the  writer's  arduous  preparation  for  a 
larger  work,  search  has  been  made  in  the  dark 
corners  of  Historical  Societies'  rooms,  and  many 
things  more  or  less  neglected  by  text-books  and 
popular  narrative  have  here  been  presented,  per 
haps,  for  the  first  time.  Moreover,  modern  authori 
ties  have  been  consulted  and  conflicting  statements 
have  been  carefully  weighed.  It  has  not  been 
thought  best  to  encumber  the  pages  of  a  child's 
book  with  references  to  controverted  questions. 

HELEN  AINSLIE  SMITH. 
Brookline,  Maw. 


EDITOR'S   PREFACE. 


THE  author  of  this  volume  has  thrown  a  flood 
of  light  upon  many  things  that,  to  young  readers, 
have  hitherto  seemed  far  away  and  shadowy,  and 
has  given  to  the  people  and  events  of  Colonial 
limes  a  real  living  interest.  This  second  volume 
in  the  series,  like  "Indians  and  Pioneers,77  is  in 
tended  to  be  a  reading-book  rather  than  a  text 
book.  Reference  should  be  made,  when  necessary, 
to  maps,  and,  while  the  book  is  rich  in  illustra 
tions,  additional  pictures  may  be  used  to  advan 
tage.  After  each  reading  exercise,  or  in  connec 
tion  with  it,  there  should  be  questions  arid  con 
versation  touching  the  more  important  events 
described. 

Acknowledgments  are  due  to  Cornelia  N.  Dut- 
toii  for  valuable  assistance  rendered  in  the  selec 
tion  of  illustrations. 

Grateful  mention  is  here  made  of  the  kindness 
of  Messrs.  Hough  ton  &  Mifflin  and  the  publishers 
of  "The  Memorial  History  of  New  York,77  in  per 
mitting  the  use  of  several  valuable  illustrations. 

SAMUEL  T.  DUTTON. 

Brookline,  Mass. 


TABLE    OF    CONTENTS. 

CHAPTE*  PAGE 

I.     GREAT  EVENTS  IN  THE  FIRST  COLONY 11 

II.  PICTURES  OF  SOUTHERN  PLANTATION  LIFE     ...  34 

III.  THE  CAROLINAS 51 

IV,  THE  FAR  SOUTH 68 

V.  THE  SOUTHERN  COLONISTS,  THE  INDIANS  AND  THE 

SPANIARDS 91 

VI.  EARLY  SCENES  IN  THE  MIDDLE  REGION     .     .     .     .  Ill 

VII.  THE  DUTCH  COMPANIE 127 

VIII.  NEW  SWEDEN 153 

IX.  THE  LIFE  OF  THE  DUTCH  COLONISTS 173 

X.  THE  DUKE'S  PROVINCE  OF  NEW  YORK 203 

XI.  THE  PALATINATE  OF  NEW  JERSEY     ....  220 

XII.  THE  QUAKER  COLONIES     .  • 233 

XIII.  THE  GREATEST  QUAKER  COLONY 248 

XIV.  IN  THE  NORTH 263 

XV.  GREAT  UNDERTAKINGS .  282 

XVI.  RIDING  BEHIND  THE  BAY  HORSE 294 

XVII.  THE  REAL  NEW  ENGLAND 309 

XVIII.  NEW  ENGLAND  INDIANS 328 

XIX.  A  CHAPTER  ON  REBELLIONS      .     .  344 


THE  COLONIES. 


CHAPTER   I. 

GREAT  EVENTS  IN  THE  FIRST  COLONY. 

THE  First  Colony  was  one  of  the  names  which 
King  James  I.  gave  to  the  company  of  London 
gentlemen  and  merchants  who  provided  the  money 
and  the  inert  to  settle  Jamestown.  At  first  that 
settlement,  and  the  others  which  grew  out  of  it,  were 
called  the  Plantation  or  Colony  of  South  Yirginia. 
Afterward,  when  the  name  of  North  Yirginia  was 
changed  to  New  England,  the  southerly  region 
was  known  as  Yirginia.  It  then  extended  two 
hundred  miles  each  way  along  the  coast  from 
Point  Comfort,  including  all  the  islands  for  one 
hundred  miles  out  to  sea,  and  running  westward 
to- the  Pacific. 

LOG-CABIN  CHURCHES. 

The  first  church  in  Yirginia  was  a  rotten  sail 
stretched  among  the  trees,  while  the  first-comers 
were  making  the  beginnings  of  Jamestown.  A 

11 


12 


THE    COLONIES. 


board,  nailed  between  two  trees,  was  the  reading- 
desk.     There  service  was  held  every  day,  and  twice 


A  LOG-CABIN  CHURCH. 


on  Sunday,  by  one  of  the  noblest  men  who  came 
to  Virginia, — the  Rev.  Robert  Hunt. 


GREAT    EVENTS    IN    THE    FIRST    COLONY. 


13 


The  next  church  was  a  log  cabin, — which  was 
built  as  soon  as  possible,  to  take  the  place  of  the 
rotten  sail.     It  was  as  large  as  your  school-room, 
perhaps  ;  for  it  was  sixty  feet  long  and  twenty-four 
feet  wide.     The  roof  was  thatched  and   held   up 
inside  the  building  by  the  trunks   of  pine-trees. 
The  trunks  of  small  cedar-trees  were  laid  to  mark 
off    the    chancel    and    the 
choir.     The  communion 
table  was  of  black  walnut. 
There  was  a  font,  too,  used 
to  baptize  the  Indians  and 
others    brought    into    this 
church  of  the  wilderness. 
The    font   was  a  piece    of 
tree -trunk    hollowed   out, 
as  the  natives  made  their 
dug-outs, — a  sort  of  strong 
and   heavy  canoe.     There 
was  a  high  pulpit,  too,  and  a  flight  of  stairs, — just 
as  in  the  finished   churches   of   Old    England,— 
where  the  minister  stood  to  preach  his  sermons. 
The  Governor  sat  in  the  choir,  upon  a  chair  lined 
with  green  velvet,  and  he  had  a  velvet  cushion  to 
kneel  on  ;  but  the  people  sat  on  plain  boards,  made 
of  the  beautiful  Virginia  cedars. 

This  church  of  the  woods  was  often  decorated 


THE  FONT  WAS  A  PIECE  OF 
TREE-TRUNK. 


14  THE    COLONIES. 

with  the  wild  flowers  of  the  country,  and  the  wind 
in  the  preat  trees  must  have  made  music  to  com- 

o 

pensate  the  people  for  having1  no  organ.  At  the 
extreme  end  of  the  church  hung  two  bells,  which 
were  used  to  call  the  colonists  to  service. 

THE   FIRST    VIRGINIANS'  GOVERNMENT. 

The  settlers  of  Jamestown  had  many  troubles 
at  first  ;  but,  just  after  their  hardest  times,  a 
great  event  suddenly  turned  their  sorrow  into  joy. 
It  was  an  event  that  gave  Virginia  many  of  the 
powers  of  a  small  republic  ;  you  may  almost  say 
that  it  was  the  first  measure  which  led  to  the 
republic  of  the  United  States. 

It  was  a  great  day  in  the  history  of  America 
when  the  Virginians  received  a  government  of  their 
own.  What  a  scene  it  must  have  been  in  the  Spring 
of  1619  ^ — the  t welf tlL_^ear_afteiL _the_  colony 's  set 
tlement, — when  J3rr  George  Yeardley  arrived  at 
Jamestown!  The  settlement  was  then  reduced  to 
a  church,  a  governor's  house,  a  tavern  and  a  few 
dwelling-houses,  which  Sir  Thomas  Grates  had 
built.  Governor  Yeardley  was  welcomed  by  every 
man  of  the  poor  six  hundred  colonists  who  had 
lived  through  the  hard  times  ;  and  they  could 
scarcely  believe  the  good  news  that  thjiJjondon 
Company,  which  owned  the  colony,  had  sent 


GREAT    EVENTS    IN    THE    FIRST    COLONY.  15 

JTeardley  to  change  their  miserable  settlements 
into  a  free  English  State,  with  the  full  rights  of 
Magna  Charta. 

,Magna._  Charta,  or  the  Great  Charter,  was  the 
written  promise  of  certain  rights  that  Englishmen 
forced  King  John  to  give  them  in  1215.  Every 
king  and  queen  since  then  has  been  bound  by  oath 
to  keep  those  promises.  If  any  sovereign  has  tried 
to  break  them,  the  people  have  compelled*  him 
either  to  give  up  his  attempt  or  to  leave  the 
throne. 

WHAT    MADE    THE    COLONISTS  LOVE    THEIR    NEW 
COUNTRY. 

JGng  James  I.  and  his  party  did  not  wish  to 
have  the  Company  make  the  colony  so  independent 
as  it  would  be  if  it  had  its  own  legislature.  But  Sir 
Edwin  Sandys,  Henry  Wroithelsey  (who  was  Earl 
of  Southampton),  John  and  Nicholas  Ferrar,  and  a 
few  other  high-minded  men  in  the  Company  knew 
that  the  settlers  would  never  love  their  country 
until  they  had  a  voice  in  their  own  aifairs.  Accord 
ingly,  they  sent  word  to  their  colonists  in  the  quaint 
language  of  the  day  jr-x"'  that  those  cruell  laws,  by 
which  the  ancient  planters  had  soe  long  been  gov 
erned,  were  now  abrogated  in  favor  of  those  free 

O 

,  laws   which  his  majesties  subjects  lived  under  in 


16 


THE    COLONIES. 


Englande  ; "  "  That  the  planters  might  have  a  hande 
in  the  governing  of  themselves,  yt  was  granted 
that  a  generall  assemblyie  should  be  held  yearly 
once,  whereat  to  be  present  the  governor  and 


counsell  with  two  burgesses  from  each  plantation, 
freely  to  be  elected  by  the  inhabitants  thereof, 
this  assemblie  to  have  power  to  make  arid  or- 
daine  whatsoever  laws  and  orders  should  by  them 
be  thought  good  and  profitable  for  their  subsist 


ence.") 


GREAT    EVENTS    IN    THE    FIRST   COLONY.  17 

THE  FIRST  LEGISLATURE  IN  THE  NEW  WORLD. 

As  soon  as  possible  all  the  free  settlers  of  Vir 
ginia  met  in  the  principal  house  of  each  planta 
tion,  or  in  some  other  convenient  place,  to  hold  the 
first  assembly  election  in  the  New  World.  The 
frontispiece  is  a  picture  of  some  of  the  planters  at 
a  meeting  for  the  election. 

The  colony  was  divided  into  eleven  boroughs, 
and  the  men  who  were  sent  from  them  to  the 
Assembly  were  called  burgesses.  A  borough 
was  sometimes  one  great  plantation  ;  sometimes 
it  was  a  group  of  several  farms  and  tobacco-fields. 
Some  of  these  groups  of  plantations  were  called 
"cities,"  to  make  people  in  England  think  the 
country  was  building  up  prosperously. 

The  boroughs,  which  sent  their  representatives, 
were  Jamestown  or  James  Cittie,  Charles  Cittie, 
the  Cittie  of  Henrico,  Kiccowtan  (afterwards  called 
Hampton),  Martin -Brandon,  Smyth's  Hundred 
(afterwards  named  Southampton),  Martin's  Hun 
dred,  Argall's  Grift,  Lawrie's  Plantation,  Ward's 
Plantation,  and  Flowerdieu's  Hundred.  Captain 
John  Martin's  Plantation  sent  delegates  too ;  but, 
as  that  was  a  plantation  made  under  special  privi 
leges  like  the  manors  in  England,  the  delegates 
did  riot  sit  with  the  others  for  fear  it  would  be 
taken  as  a  sign  that  they  gave  up  their  privileges. 


18 


THE   COLONIES. 


The  first  House  of  Virginia  Burgesses  was  the 
first  legislative   body   in   America.     Twenty-two 

members    took    their   seats 
July  30,   1619,  in  the  new 
wooden    church    at   James 
town.     They    wore    bright- 
colored  silk  and  velvet  coats 
with  starched 
ruffs     and     kept 
their  hats   on  as 
in  the    English 
House    of    Com 
mons.    Governor 


AN  OLD  VIRGINIAN. 
From  caricature  drawn  in  his  own  time. 

Yeardley  sat  in  the  choir,  and  with  him  sat  several 
of  the  leading  colonists  who  had  been  chosen  by 


GREAT    EVENTS    IN    THE    FIRST   COLONY.  19 

the  Company  for  the  Governor's  Council.  The 
Rev.  Mr.  Bucke  opened  the  session  with  a  prayer. 
This  Assembly  framed  the  laws  they  thought  the 
colony  needed.  Most  of  them  were  about  tobacco 
and  about  their  right  to  tax  themselves. 

THE  GREAT  CHARTER  OF  VIRGINIA. 

The  colonists  sent  a  copy  of  the  laws  they  made 
to  the  Company  in  London  ;  and,  in  spite  of  the 
King's  opposition,  the  Company  voted  that  they 
should  be  the  first  laws  of  Virginia.  At  the  same 
time  the  Company  gave  the  colonists  the  Great 
Charter  which  made  them  secure  in  their  right  to 

O 

make  their  laws,  and  in  all  the  rights  and  privileges 
of  free-born  Englishmen  under  Magna  Charta. 
This  Great  Charter  was  granted  July  24,  1621,  and 
was  entitled  the  Ordinance  and  Constitution  of  the 
Treasurer,  Council  and  Company  in  England  for 
a  council  of  State  and  General  Assembly  in  Vir 
ginia.  This  was  a  long  title,  but  it  told  nearly 
the  whole  story  of  the  form  of  government. 

A  HAPPY  COLONY. 

Prom  the  time  that  the  Virginia  settlers  received 
the  power  to  govern  and  tax  themselves  they  be 
gan  to  think  of  the  new  country  as  their  home. 
Before  this  they  had  only  thought  of  it  as  a  place 


20 


THE    COLONIES. 


where  they  were  forced  to  stay,  or  where  they 
would  work  hard  for  a  few  years  in  Border  to  make 
fortunes  to  carry  "  home  "  to  England.  8oon  they 
began  to  build  handsome  stone  and  brick  houses, 
and  to  send  for  their  families.  Men,  women  and 

children  came  over 
by  the  thousands, 
and  the  real  life  of 
Virginia  began. 

Many  of  these 
new  -  comers  were 
sons  of  the  best  fam 
ilies  in  England. 
They  brought 
horses,  cattle  and 
all  kinds  of  live 
stock,  as  well  as  seeds,  roots,  farming  tools,  and 
often  beautiful  furniture  and  silver  plate.  Fre 
quently  these  rich  gentlemen  took  up  plantations 
of  hundreds  and  even  thousands  of  acres,  and  began 
to  establish  the  famous  "first  families  of  Virginia." 
They  were  men  who  had  been  well  brought  up  in 
the  families  of  soldiers  and  statesmen  belonging  to 
the  highest  classes  of  English  society.  Their  com 
ing  was  fortunate  for  the  colony  ;  for  they  had 
been  educated  to  believe  that  it  was  their  duty  to 
serve  their  country,  and  they  made  Virginia  their 


BROUGHT  HORSES. 


GREAT    EVENTS    IN    THE    FIRST    COLONY. 


country  at  once.  They  helped  the  older  colonists 
to  frame  a  wise,  strong  set  of  laws  ;  they  filled  the 
public  offices  without  pay,  and  gave  their  time  arid 
money  in  other  ways  to  make  the  plantation  a  true 
English  commonwealth. 

GOVERNOR  WYATT'S  TIME. 

The  Great  Charter  of  Virginia  was  brought  out 
by  a  new  governor, — Sir  Francis  Wyatt.  It  is 
saying  a  great  deal 
for  Wyatt  that  the 
people  liked  him 
almost  as  well  as 
Yeardley,  who  could 
riot  stay  in  office 
longer  on  account  of 
his  health.  Governor 
Wyatt  came  in  a  fleet 
of  nine  vessels,  bring 
ing  three  thousand 
six  hundred  new  col 
onists. 

It  was  a  time  of 
important  begin 
nings.  Sir  George  Yeardley  set  up  the  first  wind 
mill  in  America  and  the  first  iron- works  at  Falling 
Creek,  on  the  James.  He  found  the  ore  on  his  estate 


AN  EARLY  ENGLISH  WINDMILL. 


22  THE   COLONIES. 

and  imported  skilful  workmen  to  smelt  it.  Both 
silk- worms  and  vineyards  were  cultivated  with  some 
success.  Beehives  did  better,  and  a  sample  of  cot 
ton-seed,  brought  from  the  West  Indies,  came  up 
surprisingly.  Later,  George  Sandys  (the  great  Sir 
Edwin's  brother)  started  shipyards  with  five  and 
twenty  wrights,  who  had  plenty  to  do  ;  for  every 
plantation  was  on  the  bay  or  river,  and  every 
planter  had  need  of  boats,  large  and  small. 

CHURCH  OF  ENGLAND   SERVICES. 

The  Colony  had  the  religious  forms  of  the  Church 
of  England, — from  which  Americans  formed  their 
Episcopal  Church.  No  other  forms  of  worship 
were  allowed  in  early  times.  Several  clergymen 
were  sent  out  with  the  Charter  ;  all  the  settled 
parts  of  the  country  were  laid  off  in  parishes,  and 
the  people  of  each  parish  built  a  church  as  soon  as 
possible.  At  first  they  were  log-cabins  ;  but,  after 
a  time,  the  Virginians  made  their  churches  of 
stone,  brick  or  wood  frames,  with  clapboards. 
The  assembly  made  a  law  that  every  one  in  the 
colony  must  go  to  Sunday  service,  morning  and 
evening.  The  men  were  to  take  their  muskets  and 
well-filled  powder-horns  with  them,  or  pay  a  heavy 

fine. 

The  Virginia  colonists    were  always  stanch  in 


GREAT  EVENTS  IN  THE  FIRST  COLONY.        23 

their  feeling  for  the  Episcopal  Church.  They  had 
many  severe  customs,  much  like  those  of  the  Puri 
tans  ;  and  they  were  opposed  to  every  other  sect 
except  their  own.  When  Puritans  or  Quakers  or 
any  others  came  to  the  colony  and  tried  to  make 
settlements  with  their  own  churches,  the  Virgin 
ians  drove  them  out,  and  not  always  gently  either. 

THE  PLANTER'S  WEALTH. 

Many  other  gentlemen  and  officers  of  the  new 
government  came  with  Wyatt.  The  salaries  of 
these  officers  were  secured  to  them  in  a  strange 

o 

way,  because  there  was  no  money  in  the  colony 
except  a  little  that  was  brought  over  from  Europe. 
The  salary  of  George  Sandys — the  resident  treas 
urer  or  storekeeper — -was  what  he  could  raise  on 
a  plantation  of  fifteen  hundred  acres  with  fifty 
servants.  Other  officers  were  paid  in  the  same 
manner.  You  can  easily  see  how  it  became  the 
custom  to  judge  a  Virginian's  importance  by  the 
size  of  his  plantation  and  the  number  of  his  servants  j 
During  these  years  and  for  many  afterward,  the 
Virginia  servants  were  mostly  white  men  from 
England,  who  sold  themselves  or  were  sold  from 
the  prisons  by  the  king.  Some  were  bound  for 
life  ;  some  only  for  a  certain  number  of  years  ; — 
and  these  many  times  against  their  will.  The  first 


24 


THE   COLONIES. 


negroes,  you  remember,  were  brought  to  James 
town  by  a  Dutch  trader.     Thirty  years  passed  by, 

and   many   important 
events  happened  in  Old 


England  and  in  Virginia 
before  the  colonies  were 
supplied  with  negro 
slaves.  Then  they  were 
brought  by  the  thou 
sand,  to  the  profit  of 
King  James'  grandsons, 
Charles  II  and  the  Duke 
of  York,  ii?  their  Royal 
African  Company. 

THE  VIRGINIANS  AND  THE  INDIANS. 

The  colonists,  on  the  whole,  dealt  well  with  the 
All  the  best  men  in  the  colony  tried  to 
see  that  there  was 
fair    dealing    with 
the  Indians  for  their 
skins  or  "pelts  "  of 
wild  animals.     The 
savages  gave  these 
to  the  peltry  traders 
of  the  colony  in  ex 
change    for   hatch 
ets,  tin  pans,  glass 


savages. 


GREAT   EVENTS   IN    THE   FIRST   COLONY.  25 

beads,  bright-colored  cloth,  and  other  things  that 
they  needed.     The  clergymen  and  many  planters 


tried  to  teach  the  savages  to  read 
and  write  English  and  to  convert 
them  to  Christianity  ;  but  they  never 
succeeded  very  well.  The  Indians 
taught  the  colonists  to  make  baskets 
andTmats  and  to  fish  with  their  care 
fully-made  weirs. 

The  first  Assembly  made  a  law 
that  a  white  man  should   be  put  in 
prison  for  life  if  he  sold  guns  or  powder  or  shot 
to  the  natives.     No  one  was  allowed  to  teach  the 


20 


THti   COLONIES. 


Indians  the  use  of  firearms.  The  redskins,  how 
ever,  found  ways  to  get  possession  of  the  white 
men's  weapons  and  to  learn  to  use  them,  till,  at 


POWHATAN 

thisjtate  &Ljfflfa'0n  wfien  Gyf.Smth 
-was  (Watered  to  fa'm j>ri/oner 
1607 


GREAT  EVENTS  IN  THE  FIRST  COLONY.        27 

length,  they  gave  up  the  use  of  bows  and  arrows 
in  all  their  conflicts  with  the  colonists. 

THE   POWHATAN   CONFEDERACY. 

This  colony  was  planted  in  the  country  of  the 
tribes  of  Powhatan,  or  "Falling  Waters."  There 
were  many  tribes  in  a  sort  of  union  or  confed 
eracy, — each  with  its  chief  or  sachem.  The  great 
chief,  at  the  head  of  all,  was  Wahunsunakak ;  but 
he  was  commonly  called  The  Powhatan,  as  the  head 
of  a  Scotch  clan — Mac  Donald,  for  instance — was 
called  The  Mac  Donald. 

The  Powhatans  had  several  villages  ;  one,  which 
was  named  for  the  confederacy,  contained  about 
a  dozen  houses  "pleasantly  seated  on  a  hill." 
The  houses  were  large  frames  covered  with  bark, 
somewhat  like  the  "Long  House  of  the  Iroquois." 

The  PTeat  chief's  own  village  was  on  the    York 

o  ~ 

River,  at  what  is  now  called  Putin  Bay.  Would 
you  ever  think  that  Putin  came  from  Powhatan? 
Before  Captain  John  Smith  made  friends  with 
the  Powhatans,  he  was  taken  prisoner  by  Opekan- 
kano,  the  great  chief's  younger  brother,  and  was 
led  to  the  wigwam  of  The  Powhatan.  It  was  a 
long,  low  house,  where*  the  Indian  "king  of  kings/7 
dressed  in  racoon-skins,  sat  on  a  sort  of  bench  be 
fore  the  open  fireplace. 


POWHATAN'S  MANTLE.    EMBROIDERED  WITH  SHELLS. 


GREAT    EVENTS    IN    THE    FIRST    COLONY.  29 

Generally  the  Powhatans  were  friendly  to  the 
settlers,  and  the  great  chiefs  daughter,  Pocahoritas, 
often  kept  them  from  starving.  After  Pocahoritas 
married  John  Rolfe,  the  Powhatan  made  a  treaty 
with  the  English,  because  his  daughter  had  joined 
them.  The  old  chief  and  his  sachems  then  gradu 
ally  sold  their  lands  on  the  Bay  arid  the  James 
River,  and  went  back  into  the  woods  above  Tide 
water  region. 

THE  WILY  OPEKANKANO. 

Opekankano  had  never  liked  his  brother's  sub 
mission  to  the  strangers.  Yet  he  put  himself  out 
to  be  polite  to  the  fast-growing  colony.  He  sent 
them  presents,  extended  trade  with  them,  and 
assured  them  that  he  was  their  devoted  friend  and 
servant.  He  even  played  peacemaker  once  be 
tween  them  and  the  Chicahominies.  But  all  the 
time  he  was  planning  to  destroy  the  settlements  ; 
and,  at  length,  he  almost  succeeded.  That  was  in 
what  is  often  called  the  "  great  massacre  "  arid  the 
"  massacre  of  1622. "  It  was  opened  in  this  way  : 

One  of  Opekankano's  Indians,  Jack  o'  the 
Feather,  murdered  a  white  man,  and  so  the  colonists 
killed  him.  The  redskin  Emperor  said  they  did 
well,  and  accordingly  he  sent  word  to  Governor 
Wyatt  that  the  sky  would  fall  before  he  broke  their 


30  THE    COLONIES. 

mutual  peace.  But  almost  in  the  same  breath  he 
called  his  chiefs  together  to  avenge  the  Feather's 
life  with  that  of  every  Englishman  in  Virginia. 
He  had  been  plotting  all  the  time  ;  a  plot  that  was 
matured  for  the  morning  of  March  22,  1622. 
That  day  all  the  chiefs'  sent  their  men  with  pres 
ents  of  game  to  the  different  plantations  ;  and,  while 
the  gift-bearers  breakfasted  with  the  unsuspect 
ing  settlers,  in  the  friendliest  manner,  the  tribes 
gathered. 

On  a  given  signal  they  surprised  the  whole 
colony.  At  noon  every  settlement  suddenly  be 
came  ablaze,  while  nearly  all  the  people  were  mas 
sacred.  One  converted  Indian  told  his  master  of 
the  plan  the  night  before,  took  him  in  a  boat  to 
Jamestown  and  gave  an  alarm  that  prepared  a  few 
of  the  nearest  planters.  That  was  the  only  warn 
ing.  Of  eighty  plantations,  not  eight  were  even 
partly  saved,  and  nearly  three  hundred  and  fifty 
persons  were  killed  by  horrible  tortures. 

HOW  THE  MASSACRE  WAS  AVENGED. 

The  colonists  have  been  censured  for  what  fol 
lowed.  In  their  anger  and  burning  grief,  they 
turned  on  their  enemies  with  a  fury  as  savage  as 
their  own,  hunting  them  to  the  distant  Potomac 
River.  At  harvest  time,  giving  treachery  for 


GREAT    EVENTS    IN    THE    FIRST   COLONY.  31 

treachery,  they  surprised  them  in  a  massacre  more 
terrible  and  more  overpowering  thanOpekankano's. 
Then,  day  and  night,  the  Englishmen  harried  the 
woods  in  armed  parties  till  the  Powhatan's  power 
was  completely  broken. 

ENGLAND'S  FIRST  ROYAL  PROVINCE  IN  AMERICA. 

The  little  Colony  of  Virginia  began  a  new  life  in 
many  ways  after  the  massacre.  The  Company 
sent  over  hundreds  of  men  and  started  new  planta 
tions.  But  that  was  riot  all.  King  James  I.  broke 
up  the  Company,  and  made  the  settlements  into 
a  province  with  a  royal  governor  and  council 
appointed  by  the  king.  The  people  were  still 
allowed  to  elect  their  burgesses,  who  met  with  the 
governor  and  council,  in  a  General  Assembly,  to 
frame  the  laws.  Sometimes  the  king  would  allow 
these  laws  to  be  used  and  sometimes  he  disallowed 
them.  This  was  the  first  ot  England's  royal  prov 
inces  in  America. 

A  DISTINGUISHED  VISITOR. 

If  you  should  ever  look  at  the  old  Virginia 
records,  you  might  see  this  :  u  March  25th,  1630, 
Thomas  Tiridall  is  to  be  pilloried  two  hours  for 
giving  my  Lord  Baltimore  the  lie  arid  threatening 
to  knock  him  down." 


32 


THE    COLONIES. 


This  Lord  Baltimore  was  the  most  distinguished 
visitor  to  Virginia  since  Lord  De  la  Warre,  but  he 
was  the  most  unwelcome  guest  the  planters  had 

ever  received.  He  had 
been  King  James's  friend 
and  Secretary  of  State 
when  his  name  was 
George  Calvert ;  but  af 
terwards  became  a  Cath 
olic  and  left  public  life. 
The  king  made  him 
Baron  of  Baltimore  and 
Lord  of  Avalon.  Balti 
more  was  in  Ireland, 
Avalon  was  in  New 
foundland. 

From  Avalon  my  lord  came  to  Virginia,  bring 
ing  with  him  a  company  of  people  whom  he  had 
taken  there  to  establish  a  colony,  over  which  the 
king  had  given  him  the  power  of  a  prince.  This 
colony  was  mostly  made  up  of  Roman  Catholics 
who  were  then  persecuted  in  England.  By  this 
time,  probably,  you  have  guessed  why  my  lord 
was  so  unwelcome  in  Virginia. 

O 

The  settlers  were  deeply  prejudiced  Church  of 
England  people.  They  were  as  bitter  and  unrea 
sonable  against  the  other  religions  of  Europe  as 


GEORGE  CALVERT,  FIRST  LORD 
BALTIMORE. 


GREAT    EVENTS    IN    THE    FIRST    COLONY. 


33 


were  the  Englishmen  at  home.  That  was  one 
reason.  The  other  was  that  they  did  not  want  any 
colony  under  a  -  lord-baron  to  be  near  them,  for 
fear  something  might  happen  to  deprive  them 
of  their  right  to  make  their  own  laws  through 
their  burgesses.  The  Virginians  heartily  wished 
that  his  lordship  might  find  the  climate  of  the 
Chesapeake  too  cool  for  him.  Yet  the  burgesses 
knew  their  duty  to  the  king's  friend.  They  re 
ceived  him  stiffly,  but  with  all  due  courtesy,  and 
when  Thomas  Tindall  forgot  his  manners,  he  was 
placed  in  the  pillory  for  two  hours. 


34  THE   COLONIES. 


CHAPTER  II. 

PICTURES  OF  SOUTHERN  PLANTATION  LIFE. 

BY  the  time  the  first  colony  was  of  age, — that  is, 
when  it  was  twenty-one  years  old  and  could  govern 
itself, — its  settlers  had  discovered  the  kind  of  life 
best  .suited  to  the  climate  and  the  soil  of  the  whole 
region.  This  was  the  plantation  life,  which  was 
adopted  by  all  who  came  to  Virginia,  and  by  the 
other  colonists  who  settled  Maryland  on  the  north, 
and  the  Carolinas  and  Georgia  on  the. south.  But 
in  the  far  south  the  life  was  more  like  that  which  the 
Spaniards  had  adopted  in  the  West  Indies.  Eng 
lishmen  have  always  liked  to  make  their  livings  out 
of  the  earth  and  on  the  water ;  they  have  always 
preferred  to  live  as  much  as  possible  out  of  doors ; 
so  they  took  to  plantation  life  with  pleasure. 

CITIES  WOULD  NOT  GROW. 

The  Virginia  Company,  the  King  and  all  the 
patrons  of , the  colonies,  now  laid  plans  for  sea-ports 
and  great  cities.  They  offered  all  the  induce 
ments  they  could  think  of  to  make  the  colonists 
settle  in  towns ;  they  even  threatened  them  with 


PICTURES  OF  SOUTHERN  PLANTATION  LIFE.         35 

punishments  if  they  did  riot  establish  some  "noble 
marts  of  trade."  But  the  people'  went  on  laying 
out  plantations,  though  they  politely  called  them 
cities. 

They  raised  ^potatoes,  maize  or  Indian  corn  and 
a  few  other  things  for  food,  and  cultivated  one  pro 
duct  chiefly  for  market.  In  Virginia  and  Mary 
land  this  product  was  always  tobacco.  In  the 
Carolinas  and  Georgia  the  planters  began  with 
tobacco,  but  afterwards  found  rice,  indigo  and  cot 
ton  more  profitable.  They  all  raised  stock  and 
bred  horses.  Every  one  was  a  hunter  and  a  fish 
erman  ;  but  no  one  worked  very  hard.  The  master 
and  his  family  rode  after  the  hounds  for  foxes; 
and  even  the  servants  had  bountiful  living,  and 
their  share  in  the  out-of-door  sports  that  all  Eng 
lishmen  enjoy. 

A  SOUTHERN  PLANTATION. 

The  early  Virginia  tobacco-fields  lay  upon  both 
shores  of  the  bay,  in  the  neighborhood  of  the 
James  and  up  both  banks  of  the  river  for  one  hun 
dred  and  forty  miles.  Each  plantation  had  its 
landing  on  the  water-front,  usually  in  full  view  of 
the  family  mansion. 

The  planter's  house  was  large,  roomy  and  sub 
stantial,  sometimes  with  broad  verandas  or  "gal- 


36 


THE    COLONIES. 


leries."  The  mild  climate  made  it  possible  for  the 
people  to  spend  most  of  their  time  out  of  doors 
nearly  all  the  year  round.  The  mansion  was  often 
well  filled  with  furniture  and  silver  from  England, 


A  PLANTATION  MANSION. 


which   were    considered   heirlooms  ;   and  some   of 
these  have  been  carefully  preserved  to  this  day. 

At  a  distance  from  the  mansion  were  the  ser 
vants'  quarters.    They  sometimes  were  rows  of  log 


PICTURES  OF  SOUTHERN  PLANTATION  LIFE.         37 

cabins.  At  others  they  were  long,  low  buildings 
of  brick,  or  stone,  or  wood.  Each  family  had  a 
room  or  two  in  these  barrack-like  quarters.  On  a 
larger  plantation  the  servants'  quarters  formed  a 
little  village.  Another  group  of  buildings  were 
the  stables,  barns,  and  all  the  farm  sheds.  Still 
others  were  the  shops  of  the  blacksmith  and  the 
wheel  riffht. 


LITTLE  NEGROES. 


Each  of  the  great  plantations  had  workmen  and 
tools  to  supply  nearly  every  need  of  the  master's 
household,  of  his  ''people,"  as  the  servants  were 
commonly  called,  and  of  the  enormous  work  always 
going  on  in  the  tobacco,  rice,  indigo  or  cotton 
fields. 

SMALL  KINGDOMS. 

Each  plantation  was  like  a  small  kingdom,  and 
the  planter  was  its  king.  He  sent  his  tobacco  to 


38  THE    COLONIES. 

England  in  large  cargoes  that  were  loaded  at  his 
own  landing.  The  vessels  that  took  the  tobacco 
brought  the  clothing,  furniture  and  many  other 
things  for  the  planter's  family  and  for  his  people,— 
all  the  tools  that  were  not  made  on  the  plantation, 
all  the  food  supplies  and  the  live-stock.  The  ves 
sels  also  brought  him  his  blooded  horses  and  dogs  ; 


TOBACCO  WAGON  OF  TO-DAY,  WHICH  is  MUCH  LIKE  THOSE  OF  OLD  TIMES. 

for  the  planters  loved  their  horses  and  dogs  as  all 
Englishmen  love  their  four-footed  friends. 

o 

Some  of  the  planters  had  other  great  tobacco- 
fields  farther  northward  toward  the  Potomac  River. 
These  were  the  frontier  or  "outer"  plantations, 
and  were  vast  isolated  estates  which  were  nearer 
the  Indians  than  the  settlements.  They  were  in 
charge  of  overseers,  and  were  worked  by  large 
groups  of  servants.  The  laborers  slept  in  the  rude 


PICTURES  OF  SOUTHERN  PLANTATION  LIFE.         39 

cabins  built  within  a  palisade  of  large  rough-hewn 
logs.  A  big  log  cabin  with  gunholes  was  also 
built  within  the  palisade  as  a  sort  of  fort  in  case  of 
attack. 

The  masters  did  not  live  on  their  frontier  plan 
tations,  but  sometimes  they  rode  out  to  them  in  a 
horseback  party  to  see  that  they  were  properly 
taken  care  of.  Both  overseers  and  laborers  were 
usually  lazy  and  lawless. 

THE  UPPER  CHESAPEAKE. 

The  Virginians  often  said  to  one  another  that 
•  the  upper  region  of  the  Chesapeake  Bay  was  the 
choicest  part  of  their  province.  The  Indians  called 
the  bay  the  "Mother  of  Waters,"  and  told  the 
eolonists  about  the  many  rivers  pouring  into  it,— 
about  the  diiferent  tribes  that  could  be  reached 
from  it,  and  how  a  large  fur-trade  could  be  opened 
with  them.  Captain  John  Smith  explored  the  bay 
and  made  a  good  map  of  it  before  Jamestown  was 
two  years  old.  Others  followed  him  and  went 
farther.  Trading  stations  were  set  up  in  the  deep 
woods  upon  the  water  highways  as  far  as  the 
Patuxent  River. 

The  country  and  its  great  peltry  trade  took  the 
eye  of  William  Claiborne,  who  had  been  made 
Treasurer  of  Virginia  when  James  I.  turned  it 


40 


THE    COLONIES. 


into  a  royal  province.     The  king  told  the  people 
that  they  would  find  him  ' '  a  person  of  qualitie  and 


trust."     Claiborne  was  also  agent  for  a   London 
company  chartered  by  King  James  to  make  dis- 


PICTURES  OF  SOUTHERN  PLANTATION  LIFE.         41 

coveries  and  engage  in  the  fur-trade.  In  1631  he 
built  a  settlement  and  trading-station  on  Kent 
Island,  which  is  about  one  hundred  and  thirty 
miles  north  of  the  mouth  of  the  James  River,  and 
the  finest  island  in  the  bay.  The  settlement  grew 
fast,  and  in  the  next  year  sent  its  burgesses  to  the 
Assembly. 

But  something  else  happened  in  the  next  year. 

THE  PALATINATE  OF  MARYLAND. 

Charles  I.  made  the  second  Lord  Baltimore  the 
rich  gift  of  a  slice  of  the  upper  Chesapeake  region 
for  his  province  of  Maryland.  It  extended  north 
ward  from  the  Potomac  River,  over  all  the  present 
territory  of  Maryland,  included  a  broad  strip 
within  the  boundaries  of  the  State  of  Pennsylvania, 
all  of  the  State  of  Delaware,  and  a  large  tract 
within  the  limits  of  West  Yirginia. 

With  this  gift  was  a  charter  which  made  Mary 
land  a  palatinate.  That  is,  it  gave  Lord  Baltimore 
and  his  heirs  absolute  control  of  the  country,  free 
dom  to  trade  with  the  whole  world,  and  to  make  his 
own  laws  or  to  allow  his  colonists  to  do  so.  All 
that  the  crown  asked  was  the  delivery  of  two  In 
dian  arrows  a  year  at  the  palace  of  Windsor  and  a 
fifth  of  all  gold  arid  silver  mined  in  Maryland. 

The   first  Lord  Baltimore  had  been  deeply  in 


42 


THE    COLONIES. 


earnest  to  found  a  colony  where  English  men  and 
women  could  worship  in  peace  under  their  own 
government,  whatever  might  be  their  religious 
creed.  At  that  time  there  was  no  religious  liberty 
except  under  the  Dutch  in  Holland  and  in  New 

Netherland.  The  old 
baron's  sons  were  de 
voted  to  carrying  out 
their  father's  plan. 
The  elder  brother  was 
the  second  Lord  Balti 
more.  The  younger 
brother  was  Leonard 
Calvert.  Calvert 
brought  out  the  first 
colony  in  February, 
1634.  He  was  a  good 
governor  over  Maryland  for  eleven  years — as  long 
as  he  lived.  With  him  were  "  very  nearly  twenty 
other  gentlemen  of  very  good  fashion,  two  or  three 
hundred  laboring  men  provided  with  all  things." 

Claiborne  met  them  at  Point  Comfort,  to  try  in 
vain  to  turn  them  back  before  they  had  even  seen 
their  promised  land.  This  was  ?he  signal  for  the 
bitterest  and  longest  quarrel  between  any  two 
colonies,  Governor  Calvert  brought  a  letter  from 
King  Charles  I.  to  Governor  Harvey,  of  Virginia, 


SECOND  LORD  BALTIMORE. 


43 


44  THE   COLONIES. 

commanding  the  old  colony  to  help  the  new  one. 
This  Harvey  did  while  the  Virginians  grumbled, 
and  Claiborne  did  all  he  could  to  deepen  their  ill- 
will  toward  the  new-comers.  But  they  could  not 
prevent  Calvert  and  his  company  from  going  their 
way. 

THE  FOUNDING  OF  ST.  MARY'S. 

They  went  up  the  Potomac  River  to  the  mouth 
of  a  little  stream  where  an  Indian  village  stood. 
The  village  and  the  stream  were  called  the  Yoaco- 
moco  by  a  native  tribe  of  that  name.  The  natives 
sold  part  of  their  village  to  Calvert  for  some  axes, 
hoes  and  cloth.  Then  the  good  Jesuit  fathers  held 
a  solemn  service  ;  the  little  town  was  dedicated  and 
called  St.  Mary's,  the  capital  of  the  new  Palatinate 
of  Maryland.  This  was  the  first  English  palatinate 
in  America,  but  there  were  several  others  in  after 
years. 

Governor  Calvert  immediately  placed  the  settle 
ment  under  the  colonists'  own  laws,  securing  the 
people  of  all  Christian  religions  safety  from  perse 
cution.  This,  and  the  people's  government,  made 
it  the  most  enlightened  colony  of  the  age. 

The  colony  grew  rapidly.  Tobacco  plantations 
were  soon  laid  out  upon  the  bay  and  rivers.  The 
planters  settled  into  much  the  same  sort  of  life  as 
that  of  the  Virginians.  They  had  few  of  the  hard- 


PICTURES  OF  SOUTHERN  PLANTATION  LIFE.         45 


ships  of  the  Virginia  plantations.  Within  a  dozen 
years  Maryland  was  one  of  the  most  prosperous 
group  of  settlements  on  the  coast,  in  farming,  in 
peltry  trade,  in  fishing  and  in  commerce  with 
other  countries.  Lord  Baltimore  had  silver  and 
copper  coins  made  for  the  colonists'  currency. 

CAL VERT'S  WISDOM  WITH  THE  INDIANS. 

The  corning  of  Lord  Baltimore's  colony  was  an 
important  event  in  the  Indian  affairs  of  the  English 
settlers.  Claiborne 
told  the  tribes  of 
the  upper  Chesa 
peake  that  the  new- 
coiners  were  Span 
iards,  which  made 

<rmi<»    nf   tlin     rlnpf*  BALTIMORE  SHILLING. 

From  Mathew?  Coinages  of  the  World. 

unfriendly  at  first  ; 

but  they  soon  saw  the  lie,  and  changed  their  be 
havior. 

News  of  Cal vert's  fair  dealing  spread  far  and 
wide.  The  Yoacomocos  gave  up  part  of  their  prin 
cipal  village  for  the  town  of  St.  Mary's.  They  even 
gave  their  best  wigwams  for  the  first  chapel  in 
Maryland  and  for  the  homes  of  the  governor  and 
his  people,  and  they  never  had  cause  to  regret  it. 
Soon  Governor  Calvert  saw  that  other  neighboring 


46  THE    COLONIES. 

tribes  could  be  drawn  into  profitable  trade.  He 
also  found  that  there  were  more  powerful  tribes 
than  the  Yoaeomocos,  and  as  soon  as  possible  he" 
notified  them  that  the  Englishmen  of  St.  Mary's 
wished  to  make  a  league  of  peace  and  friendship 
with  them.  In  this,  Governor  Harvey  joined  for 
the  Virginians,  much  to  their  benefit  if  they  had 
only  been  willing  to  admit  it.  This  friendship,  how 
ever,  brought  some  enmity  from  the  fierce  Susque- 
hanoughs  of  the  northerly  regions  and  from  the 
Nantieokes  on  the  south. 

THE  GOOD  JESUIT  FATHERS  OF  MARYLAND. 

Much  of  Maryland's  friendship  with  the  Indians 
was  won  by  Jesuit  missionaries.  They  made 
themselves  the  brothers  of  the  savages  and  taught 
them  their  religion,  in  ways  that  the  red-men 
could  understand.  They  taught  them  simple  arts 
and  crafts  that  the  Indians  liked  ;  and  they  nursed 
them  in  sickness  and  gave  them  of  their  own  scanty 
fare  in  famine.  The  tribes  near  the  settlers  were 
fishing  Indians,  who  had  their  small  villages  along 
the  rivers  and  the  bay. 

The  missionaries  who  went  in  their  boats  from 
one  village  to  another,  were  always  joyfully  iv- 
ceived.  When  a  couple  of  priests  came  to  an 
Indian  village  toward  night,  some  of  the  natives 


48  THE    COLONIES. 

set  out  at  once  to  find  game  for  their  evening 
meal,  others  helped  them  to  build  camp-fires  and 
make  comfortable  resting-places. 

The  red-men  were  grateful  to  the  missionaries 
who  healed  their  sick  and  treated  them  with  a  kind 
ness  they  had  never  known  before.  They  made 
the  good  fathers  large  presents  of  corn,  of  peltries, 
and  of  great  tracts  of  land.  They  joined  the  set 
tlers  in  hunting  and  fishing,  and  taught  them  the 
craft  of  the  woods,  how  maize  and  tobacco  were 
raised,  and  what  roots  and  herbs  and  berries  were 
good  for  food.  The  squaws  told  the  women  how 
to  make  bread,  cake  and  many  other  wholesome, 
toothsome  dishes. 

OPEKANKANO'S  LAST  OUTBREAK. 

The  planters  of  the  Chesapeake  and  its  rivers 
had  peace  with  the  Indians  for  twenty-three  years 
after  the  massacre  of  the  Virginians  in  1622.  But 
in  the  Spring  of  1645  this  long  peace  was  suddenly 
broken  by  Opekankano.  He  was  then  nearly  a 
hundred  years  old,  almost  blind,  and  so  feeble  that 
he  was  carried  in  a  litter.  Yet  he  commanded  an 
attack  upon  the  plantation  of  the  Pamunkey  and  the 
York  rivers,  which  was  made  so  quietly  and  so  swift 
ly  that  three  hundred  were  killed  before  the  news 
reached  the  capital  or  any  defense  could  be  made. 


PICTURES  OF  SOUTHERN  PLANTATION  LIFE. 


49 


The  outbreak  was  quelled  and  Opekankano  was 
taken  prisoner  to  Jamestown,  where  he  was  killed 
by  an  Indian  on  account  of  some  private  grudge. 
His  people  never  tried  again  to  regain  their  coun 
try  from  the  English.  The  warlike  spirit  and  the 
imperial  title  of  the  Powhatans  seemed  to  have 
passed  away  with  this  last  uncle  of  Pocahontas. 

The  next  chief  was  merely  called  ''king.'7  He 
agreed  to  hold  his  authority  under  the  Crown  of 
England,  and  to  pay  to  the  Governor  of  Virginia 
an  annual  tribute  of  twenty  beaver-skins  "at  the 
going  of  the  geese.77  The  hunting-grounds  of  his 
people,  he  agreed,  should  be  above  the  York.  Any 
Indian  who  went  south  of  that  stream,  except  as 
a  messenger  and  wearing  a  white  cloth  badge, 
did  so  on  pain  of  death.  And  the  Virginians 
promised  that  any  white  man  who  went  north  of 


50  THE    COLONIES. 

the  York,  except  as  a  white-badged  messenger, 
should  be  sentenced  as  a  felon. 

After  that  the  colonists  of  the  Chesapeake  region 
had  no  more  serious  troubles  with  any  of  the  tribes 
of  the  old  Powhatan  Confederacy.  They  had  few 
attacks  from  any  Indians,  except  from  those  on  the 
distant  frontier. 


THE    CAROLINAS.  51 


CHAPTER  III. 

THE  CAROLINAS. 

IT  was  nearly  thirty  years  after  the  founding-  of 
Maryland  before  the  Virginians  had  any  neighbors 
on  the  South  ;  that  is,  before  there  was  a  colony  of 
white  men  between  their  own  settlements  and  the 
Spaniards  of  Florida. 

The  French  took  possession  at  Port  Royal, 
naming  the  whole  region  Carolina,  from  their  boy 
king  Carolus,  or  Charles  IX.;  but  the  Spaniards 
had  driven  them  out,  declaring  that  Florida  ex 
tended  to  the  near  neighborhood  of  the  Virginia 
settlements,  although  they  had  no  fort  north  of 
St.  Augustine.  Charles  I.  of  England  also  claimed 
the  region  ;  but,  as  he  only  named  it  Carolina, 
arid  gave  some  of  it  to  a  man  who  did  not  settle 
it,  the  Spaniards  took  no  special  notice  of  his 
action. 

After  many  years  a  few  restless  Virginians  set 
tled    on    some    small    tobacco    patches    near    the 
Chowan  River  and  on  what  was  afterwards  called  < 
Albemarle  Sound.     That  was  about  the  year  1650. 

Ten  years  or  so  afterwards  King  Charles  II.  and 


52 


THE    COLONIES. 


some  of  his  courtiers  began  to  cover  sheets  of 
parchment  with  vast  schemes  for  a  new  English 
province  which  was  to  be  planted  in  this  region,  in 


KING  CHARLES  I. 


order  to  defend  it  against  any  further  claims  of 
the  Spaniards. 

In  March,  1663,  almost  a  century  after  the 
beautiful  coast  was  named  for  the  Ninth  French 
Charles,  it  was  renamed  Carolina  by  the  English 


THE    CAROLINAS. 


53 


Charles  the  Second,  and  presented  to  eight  gentle 
men  of  his  court  as  a  palatine  province. 

HOW  OLD   ENGLAND'S  HISTORY  AFFECTED 
CAROLINA. 

If  you  remember  your  English  history,  you  will 
recall  the  fact  that  Charles  II.  had  not  been  lorn 


KING  CHARLES  II. 

on  the  throne  when  he  planned  the  Palatinate  of 
Carolina.    Indeed,  he  had  come  so  near  missing  his 


54  THE    COLONIES. 

crown  altogether  that  he  was  making  too  much  of 
his  power  even  then.  His  father,  Charles  I.,  had 
been  beheaded,  you  know,  for  having  his  own  way 
too  much  ;  and  the  Puritans  or  Roundheads  had 
declared  that  they  could  govern  England  without 
king  or  queen.  They  did  so,  too,  as  long  as  Oliver 
Cromwell  lived  to  be  Lord  Protector  of  the  realm. 
But  as  soon  as  Cromwell  died,  there  was  no  one  to 
take  his  place.  The  Roundheads  were  forced  then 
to  allow  the  Crown  Prince,  after  several  years  of 
exile,  to  come  back  from  France  and  to  see  him 
crowned  as  King  Charles  II.  That  was  a  great 
triumph  for  the  king  and  his  party.  The  king  and 
his  ministers  were  determined  to  make  the  royal 
power  stronger  than  it  had  ever  been  before,  not 
only  in  Old  England,  but  in  the  American  plan 
tation,  too.  Their  greatest  scheme  was  for  the 
Carolinas. 


THE  FUNDAMENTAL  CONSTITUTION. 

The  Proprietors  asked  Lord  Chancellor  Shaftes- 
bury  to  plan  a  government  for  Carolina.  Shaftes- 
bury  called  in  the  aid  of  John  Locke,  who  after 
wards  became  celebrated  as  a  philosopher.  To- 
gether  these  remarkable  men  planned  the  ' '  Grand 
Model'7  of  governments.  They  said  that  it  was 
The  Fundamental  Constitution ??  of  a  colonial 


THE    CAROLINAS.  55 

government  which  was  "  agreeable  to  monarchy/7 
and  would  save  the  Province  from  "a  numerous 
democracy.77 

It  was  a  long  and  elaborate  scheme  to  place 
pretty  much  all  the  power  and  the  benefits  of  the 
settlements  in  the  hands  of  the  Proprietors.  For  a 
quarter  of  a  century  they  tried  to  enforce  it  as  the 
government  of  Carolina  ;  but  in  fact,  scarcely  any 
of  it  ever  went  into  effect. 

THE  NOBILITY  OF  CAROLINA. 

Perhaps  you  have  heard  people  say  that  there 
are  no  titled  men  and  women  among  Americans, 
no  nobility  such  as  there  is  in  Europe.  But  once 
upon  a  time  there  were  American  barons  and  lords 
of  manors,  caciques,  seignors,  landgraves  and  pala 
tines  ;  that  is,  there  were  laws  to  make  such  a 
nobility.  Carolina  was  to  have  a  rich  and  lordly 
class  of  gentlemen,  who  were  to  be  looked  up  to 
and  obeyed  by  all  common  people. 

Carolina  was  to  be  like  Old  England  in  the  feu 
dal  times,  several  centuries  before  America  was 
discovered.  Hundreds  and  thousands  of  common 
people  were  to  be  invited  to  go  there  from  the 
other  colonies  to  bow  and  scrape  to  their  worships, 
and  to  humbly  do  all  the  work.  Carolina  was  to 
have  the  largest,  the  richest  and  the  most  irnpos- 


56 


THE    CAROLINAS. 


57 


ing  plantations  and  cities  in  America ;  but  not  one 
jot  of  all  the  fanciful  scheme  ever  came  to  pass. 

America  was  then,  as  it  is  now,  a  country  where 
there  was  so  much  work  to  be  done  that  industry 
made  the  only  aristocracy  the  land  would  tolerate. 
Independent  settlers  increased  at  the  head  of 
Albemarle  Sound,  and  others  planted  at  the  mouth 
of  Cape  Fear  River.  Both  colonies  insisted  on 
making  their  own  laws.  Neither  would  ever  con 
sent  to  be  under  the  same  control,  and  after  sev 
eral  years  they  were  set  off  as  North  and  South 
Carolina. 

IN  NORTH  CAROLINA. 

The  Virginians  who  first  settled  on  the  Chowan 
River  and  about  the  head  of  the  Sound  had  been 
there  ten  years,  perhaps,  when  they  heard  that 
Charles  II.  had  created  the  new  Province  of  Caro 
lina.  When  the  news  reached  them,  they  called  their 
river  arid  their  settlement  Albemarle,  as  a  compli 
ment  to  the  eldest  proprietor,  and  promptly  asked 
to  be  included  in  the  new  Province,  although  they 
had  received  their  patents  from  the  Yirginian 
Assembly.  Their  settlements  were  beyond  the 
boundaries  of  Carolina  ;  but  his  majesty  easily 
gave  the  Proprietors  a  new  charter  that  cut  into 
Yiro-inia  on  the  North  almost  to  Hampton,  and 

c5 


58  THE    COLONIES. 

into  Florida  on  the  South  beyond  St.  Augustine. 
Then  Proprietor  Sir  William  Berkeley,  who  was 
Governor  of  Virginia,  was  asked  to  send  a  gov 
ernor  to  "  the  first  suiters."  He  sent  them  a^fine 
fellow,  named  William  Druinmond.  The  Pro 
prietors  also  asked  Berkeley  to  send  more  set 
tlers  into  their  province.  "Get  them  cheaply 
if  possible,77  they  said;  "but  get  them  at  any 
rate.77 

ALBEMARLE  COUNTY. 

Whether  the  Proprietors  got  the  colonists  cheaply 
or  dearly  we  do  not  know,  but  new  colonists  poured 
into  the  settlement  on  the  Chowan  River.  The 
Colony  was  soon  called  Albemarle  county  of  Caro 
lina,  for  the  great  Duke  of  Albemarle,  who  was 
the  eldest  proprietor.  Afterwards  the  Sound,  too, 
was  named  for  him. 

Many  of  the  new  settlers  were  Puritans,  driven 
from  Virginia  by  Governor  Berkeley,  and  from 
New  England  by  the  harsh  winters.  Others  were 
Quakers,  who  also  were  driven  from  Virginia  and 
from  New  England.  Some  were  gentlemen  who 
wished  to  be  missionaries  among  the  Indians  ; 
others  were  lawless  trappers  and  traders,  who 
wanted  to  be  beyond  the  reach  of  Virginia  sheriffs. 
There  were  hard-working  Englishmen,  besides,  who 


THE    CAROLINAS. 


59 


had  come  over  to  Virginia  as  bond-servants — men 
who  had  worked  out  their  freedom,  but  who  could 
not  hope  to  rise  to  social  equality  with  their  former 
masters.  Afterwards  many  of  these  freedmen 
pushed  their  way  beyond  the  most  remote  of  the 
Virginia  plantations  to  a  similar  country  on  tide 
water  bays  and  rivers. 

A  LAND  OF  SMALL  PLANTATIONS. 

The  settlers  took  up  small  farms,  obtained  a  few 
negro  slaves  to  work  them,  and  settled  down  to  a 


A  NEGRO  CABIN. 


new  life  of  their  own..  After  a  few  years  there  were 
enough  of  these  settlers  to  form  a  new  colony,  and 


60  THE    COLONIES. 

one  of  different  diameter  from  any  other  in  the 
South.  It  was  a  colony  of  small,  scattered  tobacco 
planters,  of  farmers,  hunters,  and  trappers  as  well 
as  of  men  who  made  tar,  turpentine  and  lumber 
out  of  the  yellow-pine  forests.  Their  small  plan 
tations  lay  along  the  north  shore  of  Alhemarle 


A  CANOE. 

Sound  and  its  inlets  and  streams.  The  water  was 
their  highway  ;  and  men,  women  and  children 
went  hither  and  thither  in  their  canoes  and  light 
skiffs.  About  the  mouth  of  the  Pasquotank 
Kiver  was  a  party  of  ship -builders  from  Ber 
muda. 

THE  ALBEMABLE  PARLIAMENT. 

Governor  Drummond  and  his  Council  of  six  of 
'"the  first  seaters"  met  the  landholders  at  once  in 
an  assembly,  or  "parliament."  Five  years  after 
wards  Governor  Stevens  came  over  from  the  Pro 
prietors  ;  and  then  the  colonists  sent  their  deputies 
to  the  Parliament.  They  arranged  a  simple  con- 


THE    CAROLINAS.  61 

stitution  and  by-laws  by  which  the  Colony  lived 
for  more  than  half  a  century.  Many  of  these  laws 
remind  us  of  the  rough  customs  of  our  far  western 
frontier  to-day.  In  order  to  draw  settlers,  the 
Parliament  offered  to  protect  any  one  running 
away  from  the  law  in  other  colonies.  It  also 
offered  to  allow  a  new-comer  to  work  his  land 
without  taxes  for  five  years. 

The  Governor  and  Council  were  the  court  of. 
justice,  and  had  large  fees  in  tobacco.  They  also 
performed  the  marriage  ceremony.  There  were  no 
clergymen  in  the  Colony  for  many  years  ;  but  every 
man  was  free  to  worship  in  his  own  religion. 

NO  MODEL  GOVERNMENT  FOB  THEM. 

Soon  after  the  Albemarle  colonists  framed  their 
simple  government  the  Proprietors  asked  them  to 
adopt  their  grand  Fundamental  Constitution  ;  but 
they  respectfully  declined  to  have  anything  to  do 
with  that  "perfect  government,  which  should 
endure  through  all  ages  and  be  a  model  to  all 
people."  Their  own  laws  were  well  enough,  and 
they  would  have  no  others. 

What  had  these  fishermen,  ship-builders,  tobacco- 
raisers,  and  fur-traders  to  do  with  barons  and  lords 
of  manors,  palatines  and  landgraves?  They 
would  not  hear  of  them.  The  Proprietors  modi- 


62  THE    COLONIES. 

fied  their  Grand  Model.  No  matter,  the  settlers 
refused  to  accept  it.  Again  it  was  altered  and 
again  it  was  refused.  The  Albemarle  "seaters" 
knew  what  they  wanted,  and  woe  fell  upon  any 
proprietor's  officer  who  came  among  them  to 
preach  the  Fundamental  Constitution.  At  length 
the  Proprietors  left  these  people  to  themselves  and 
gave  their  favor  to  the  southerly  plantations,  which 
they  called  "our  colony  southwest  of  Cape  Fear," 
while  they  spoke  of  the  Albemarle  settlers,  as  "  our 
colon v  northeast  of  Cape  Fear." 

HARD  TIMES  OF  "  OUR  COLONY  NORTHEAST  OF 
CAPE  FEAR." 

The  North  Carolina  people  always  had  hard 
times.  They  were  on  bad  terms  with  the  Proprie 
tors,  because  they  refused  the  Model  Government, 
and,  more  than  all  that,  because  they  refused  to 
pay  rent  to  their  noble  landlords.  After  more 
than  fifty  years,  the  settlements  numbered  only  a 
few  thousand  people — not  enough  to  make  one  good- 
sized  town.  About  their  simple  cabins  lay  broad 
meadows,  which  fed  their  cattle,  arid  the  primeval 
forests  where  their  horses  bred,  their  swine  fat 
tened,  and  where  there  lived  turkey  and  other  game. 
The  way  from  one  house  to  another  was  "  blazed  " 
by  notches  in  the  trees.  For  many  years  they 


THE    CAROLINAS.  63 

had  but  few  slaves.  Altogether  they  did  not  raise 
more  than  eight  hundred  thousand  pounds  of 
tobacco  a  year.  They  raised  some  maize,  also, 
and  made  tallow,  resin,  tar,  pitch  and  turpentine. 


THERE  WAS  GAME  IN  THE  FORESTS. 


The  "first  seaters "  had  a  good  trade  with  the 
Indians  of  the  Tuscarora  nation,  who  lived  near 
them.  They  brought  the  planters  hides,  deer 
skins  and  the  "pelts'7  of  smaller  animals.  The 
people  had  no  money ;  and  so  in  their  Parliament, 


64  THE    COLONIES. 

they  fixed  the  value  of  their  stores  and  products 
for  current  use  in  barter  among  themselves  and 
for  rents  to  the  Proprietors. 

A  POOR  LIVING. 

The  settlers  did  not  work  hard ;  nor  were  they 
enterprising.  One  writer  says:  "They  mingled 
a  leisurely  industry  with  the  use  of  rod  and  fowl 
ing-piece."  No  one  ventured  far  for  trade.  By 
land  they  were  isolated  by  swampy,  almost  path 
less  forests,  on  the  one  side,  from  Virginia,  and,  on 
the  other,  from  South  Carolina.  The  Proprietors 
would  not  help  them  to  trade  with  the  Mother 
country,  and  they  were  so  far  from  the  sea,  and 
had  such  poor  harbors,  that  they  had  few  visitors 
from  the  other  colonies.  Once  in  a  while  a  trader 
from  Virginia  visited  them ;  or  a  New  England 
captain  made  the  round-about  trip  up  Parnlico,  and 
through  the  narrow  entrances  of  Albernarle  Sound. 
From  one  plantation  to  another  they  went,  carry 
ing  ruin,  tools,  and  a  few  manufactured  articles, 
which  they  exchanged  for  all  the  Albemarle  pel 
tries  they  could  get,  and  almost  anything  else. 

This  trade  was  carried  on  as  secretly  as  possible 
to  avoid  the  customs  tax  which  Charles  II.  laid  on 
all  the  colonies  in  his  Navigation  Acts  ;  but,  with 
all  the  smuggling,  it  is  said  that  the  king's  custom 


THE    CAROLINAS. 


officers   collected   in   this   poor  little  colony  what 
would  now  equal  twelve  thousand  dollars  a  year. 

A  BENIGHTED  PEOPLE. 

So  the  Albemarle  people- lived  their  lazy,  lonely 
lives.  They  had  no  outside  help  ;  sometimes  they 
had  no  news  of  the  rest  of  the  world  for  months 
at  a  time.  They  had  no  schools  nor  churches,  no 
books  nor  newspapers.  Their  colony  was  called  a 
"sanctuary  of  runaways"  by  the  Virginians,  who 
had  no  love  for  them.  One  old  writer  said  :  "It  is  a 
country  where  there's  scarce  any  form  of  govern 
ment.'7  Another  wrote  :  "Every  one  does  what  is 
right  in  his  own  eyes."  The  settlers  frequently 
refused  to  pay  both  rents  and  taxes. 

The  Proprietors  often  sent  them  governors,  sec 
retaries  and  other  officers,  who  did  more  harm  than 
0-ood.  The  people  often  refused  to  pay  their  tithes 
to  bad  men  ;  many  times  their  colony  was  a  "hot 
bed  of  rebellion."  With  all  their  faults,  they  were 
a  strong,  brave  and  generous  people.  When  other 
colonies  were  in  need  of  help,  the  North  Caro 
linians  sent  men  and  supplies,  while  richer  colonies 
did  nothing. 

Rough  and  lawless  as  the  Albemarle  planters 
were,  they  lived  at  peace  with  the  natives.  They 
were  in  the  midst  of  the  large  arid  powerful  Tus- 


66 


THE    COLONIES. 


carora  nation  of  Iroquois  Indians.  They  traded  with 
them,  and  had  all  sorts  of  dealings  with  them  for 
over  fifty  years  without  any  serious  trouble.  When, 
at  length,  the  Tusearoras  made  war  on  the  settlers, 
the  Albemarle  people  fought  valiantly  against  the 
Indians.  They  were  good  soldiers,  too,  in  the 
border  wars  with  the  Spaniards,  and  in  the  Old 
Freneh  arid  Indian  War. 

IN  QUEEN  ANNE'S  REIGN. 

After  the  beginning  of  the  18th  century,  when 
"Good  Queen  Anne"  reigned  in  England,  there 
were  many  ehanges  for  the  better  in  North  Caro 
lina.     The  most 
important  of  all 
these   changes 
was  the  coming 
of  new  settlers. 
The  first  com 
pany   from   Eu 
rope  who  made 
their   homes    in 
this  region  were 

Swiss  WOMEN  CARRYING  HASKETS. 

Huguenots. 

They  were  driven  from  Prance  by  persecution,  and 
planted  their  first  towns  near  Bath,  where  the  Taw 
River  flows  into  Pamlico  Sound.  A  few  years  later 


THE    CAROLINAS.  67 

the  queen  sent  out  a  larger  company  of  German  Pal 
atines,  who  settled  with  some  Swiss,  immigrants  on 
the  Neuse  River.  The  Swiss,  in  memory  of  their 
city  at  home,  famous  for  its  bears,  called  their 
settlement  New  Berne.  Later  there  came  Scotch- 
Irish  and  many  Scotch  Highlanders,  among  whom 

was  Flora  Mac  Donald.     Have  you  ever  heard  the 

j 

story  of  the  brave  Scotch  girl,  Flora  Mac,  Donald? 
After  the  battle  of  Culloden,  she  helped  the  van 
quished  Prince  Charlie,  disguised  as  her  maid,  to 
escape  from  the  island  of  Benbecula  to  Skye. 

Of  all  the  people  from  Europe  who  came  to  Al- 
bemarle,  those  who  did  most  good  to  the  Colony 
were  from  County  Ulster,  in  Ireland.  They  were 
known  as  Scotch-Irish,  because  their  forefathers 
had  been  Scotch  who  moved  into  Ireland.  They 
were  plain,  hard-working  people,  of  Protestant 
religion  and  noble  character.  They  brought  all 
their  good  customs  with  them,  and  had  a  powerful 
influence  in  the  Colony.  They  finally  drove  out 
the  lawless  and  quarrelsome  men  who  had  thrown 
the  settlements  into  many  an  uproar  in  earlier 
days. 


68  THE    COLONIES. 


CHAPTER  IV. 

THE  FAR  SOUTH. 

THE  Lord  Proprietors  of  Carolina  had  no  more 
to  do  with  the  first  settlement  in  the  Southern  part 
of  their  province  than  with  the  beginning  of  the 
Albemarle  Colony.  The  first  plantation  in  South 
Carolina  was  made  by  Englishmen,  in  the  same 
year  that  Charles  II.  created  the  Province. 

In  1663,  several  rich  English  planters  left  Barba- 
does  and  went  to  the  Cape  Fear  ;  or,  as  they  called 
it,  the  Cape  Fair  River.  They  left  Barbadoes  for 
the  coast  of  the  northern  continent,  because  they 
wanted  to  settle  where  they  could  control  their  own 
affairs.  In  honor  of  the  king,  who  had  lately  been 
restored  to  his  father's  throne,  they  named  their 
settlement  Charles  Town. 

When  the  Proprietors  heard  of  them,  they 
erected  the  County  of  Clarendon  from  Cape  Fear 
to  the  St.  John's  River,  Florida,  and  appointed  Sir 
John  Yeamans  as  their  governor.  Soon  other 
planters  were  sent  out,  till  there  were  eight  hun 
dred  colonists  in  two  or  three  different  settlements 
near  Cape  Fear.  Governor  Yeamans  was  not  long 


THE    FAR    SOUTH. 


09 


in  building  up  a  large  trade  with  Barbadoes,  in 
boards,  shingles  arid  staves. 

French  Huguenots,  Germans,  Scotch,  Irish  and 
Highlanders   began  to   go  to   South    Carolina   in 


,c 


1670. 

At  about  the  same  time  men 
and  women  of  the  persecuted 
races  of  Europe  swelled  the 
population  of  both  the  Caroli- 
nas  ;  but  the  poorer  families 
went  to  Albemarle  Sound,  while 
the  richer  families  settled  about 
Charleston,  taking  their  beau 
tiful  furniture  and  silverware. 

No  one  knows  just  where  the 
first  Charles  Town  stood  ;  for, 
after  a  few  years,  a  large  colony 
which  had  been  planted  by  the 
Proprietors    induced    the    first 
planters  to  join  their 
settlement  on  Oyster 
Point,     between     the 
Cooper  and  the  Ash 
ley  rivers.      So  a  new 
Charles  Town  became  the  capital  of  South  Carolina, 
which,  after  a  time,  was  called  Charleston. 

Perhaps,  sometime,  you  may  be  so  fortunate  as 


THE   COLONIES. 

to  see  a  rare  old  book,  called  :  "  The  Compleat  Dis 
covery  of  the  State  of  Carolina."  If  you  do,  you 
may  read  from  its  yellow  pages,  "  that  the  new 
capital  on  Oyster  Point  was  regularly  laid  out 
with  large  and  capacious  streets.7'  The  people 

"reserved    convenient    places    for    Buildin^   of  a 

i  & 

Church,  Town  Hall  and  other  Publick  Structures, 
an  Artillery  Ground  for  the  Exercise  of  their  Mili 
tia,  and  Wharves  for  the  convenience  of  their  trade 
and  Shipping."  You  will  also  read  that  "Great 
number  of  Families  "  "  daily  transport  themselves 
hither."  These  families  came  from  England,  Ire 
land,  Barbadoes,  Jamaica  and  the  Caribbees,  and 
about  the  year  1G85,  nearly  twenty-five  hundred 
people  had  settled  in  the  Colony. 

"  OUR  COLONY  SOUTHWEST  OF  CAPE  FEAR." 

For  many  years  the  Proprietors  gave  their  best 
efforts  to  what  they  called,  "Our  Colony  South 
west  of  Cape  Fear,"  or  the  County  of  Clarendon. 
The  first  governor,  Sir  John  Yeamans,  had  spe 
cial  orders  to  "make  things  easy  to  the  people  of 
New  England,  from  which  the  greatest  emigrations 
are  expected."  A  governor  who  soon  followed 
him  was  a  Puritan. 

Everything  possible  was  done  to  attract  colo 
nists  of  all  nations  and  all  the  Protestant 


THE    FAR    SOUTH.  71 

religions.  After  a  time  Jews  were  allowed  to  come, 
before  they  were  received  in  any  other   colonies 
but  Rhode   Island   and    Georgia.     Land    was   of 
fered  on  low  terms.     The  people  were  allowed  to 
have  their  own  churches  and  ministers,  and  the 
Proprietors  tried  to  keep  them  all  from  harshness 
toward  each  other.     The  colonists  were  allowed  to 
make  their  own  government  too.     The  governors 
were  appointed  by  the  Proprietors,  but  were  some 
times  removed  if  the    people  did  not  like    them. 
After  a  few  changes  the  people  were  well  pleased 
with  Governor  Joseph  West.     He  ruled  well  for 
twelve  years,  which  was  a  long  time  for  a  colonial 
governor  to  hold  office. 

The  Southern  colony's  Parliament,  like  that  of 
the  Albemarle  settlers,  was  made  up  of  the  "Grand 
Council,"  which  consisted  of  five  men  appointed 
by  the  Proprietors,  and  five  others  elected  by  the 
people,  who  sat  with  twenty  delegates  elected  by 
the  freemen  of  the  colony. 

GAY  TOWN  LIFE. 

The  Proprietors  carried  one  point  with  the 
colonists.  They  induced  them  to  build  a  city  when 
no  other  colony  in  the  South  could  be  coaxed  or 
driven  to  do  so.  Every  freeholder  had  a  town  lot 
one  twentieth  the  size  of  his  plantation,  on  which. 


THE    FAR    SOUTH. 

he  was  obliged  to  build  a  two-story  house.  Most  of 
the  planters  and  their  families  lived  in  their  town 
houses  a  large  part  of  the  time.  They  were  rich, 
and  had  plenty  of  leisure 'for  indoor  parties  and 
outdoor  sports.  Thjey  had  their  theatres,  their 
great  ballrooms,  and  all  the  amusements  of  a  gay 
town  life.  Their  ways  of  living  soon  became  more 
like  those  of  the  wealthy  planters  of  the  West  In 
dies  than  like  the  customs  of  the  other  Thirteen 
Colonies. 

Sometimes  the  planters'  sons  were  sent  to  Eu 
rope,  but  usually  they  were  educated  at  home  by 
masters  and  tutors  from  the  old  country.  And  so 
there  grew  up  an  aristocratic  class,  accustomed  to 
much  leisure  and  many  luxuries. 

THE  GRAND  MODEL  REFUSED. 

The  Grand  Model  seemed  as  impossible  to  the 
great  planters  of  the  Southern  Colony  as  to  the 
small  farmers  of  Albemarle.  The  Proprietors  in 
sisted  again  and  again  upon  a  government  under 
it ;  while  the  people  always  refused  anything  but 
the  simple  representative  government.  The  Pro 
prietors  did  not  turn  against  them  for  this  as  they 
turned  against  the  Albemarle  Colony.  Help  of 
all  kinds  was  sent  to  "Our  colony  southwest  of 
Cape  Fear." 


74  TIIK    COLONIES. 

South  Carolina  had  many  governors  from  the 
Proprietors  ;  some  were  good,  others  selfish.  Once 
or  twice  one  of  the  Proprietors  came.  But  there 
was  trouble  between  them  and  the  planters  nearly 
all  the  time.  Sometimes  the  trouble  was  over 
serious  questions  of  government  ;  sometimes  over 
officers,  taxes  or  rent ;  other  disagreements  were 
on  religious  matters. 

There  were  sore  vexations  also  over  affairs  with 
the  Indians  and  with  the  Spaniards  ;  for  the  Pro 
prietors'  directions  were  to  extend  the  government 
as  far  south  "as  the  Spaniards  would  tolerate.'7 
So  much  of  the  South  Carolinians'  early  life  was 
spent  in  the  border  wars  with  Florida. 

Tii  1719,  the  people  refused  to  remain  any  longer 
under  the  Proprietors.  The  citizens  of  Charleston 
stood  firm  on  their  rights,  making  a  disturbanee 
which  is  sometimes  called  a  rebellion.  Eight  years 
later  the  Province  was  formally  taken  under  the 
crown  by  King  George  I. 

THE  GREAT  SLAVE  COLONY. 

From  the  beginning,  South  Carolina  was  the 
great  slave  colony  of  the  Thirteen.  The  Pro 
prietors7  settlement  at  the  new  Charles  Town  was 
only  two  years  old  when  Sir  John  Yeamans  landed 
a  ship-load  of  negroes  from  Barbadoes,  arid  sold 


THE    PAR    SOUTH.  75 

them  to  the  settlers  to  do  the  work  of  clearing  the 
laud,  building  their  houses,  and  laying  out  their 
tobacco  plantations. 

Many  of  the  planters;  you  know,  came  from 
Barbadoes,  where  there  were  twice  as  many  black 
men  as  white  men.  Slave-dealing  was  the  one 
settled  industry  ^  if 

oi  Barbadoes, 
and  it  soon 
spread  to  the 
new  colony.  The 

-, .  HARD  WORK  ON  THE  PLANTATION. 

climate  was  too 

warm  for  hard  work,  and  the  Englishmen  who  set 
tled  Charleston  were  not  the  sort  of  men  to  throw 
off  their  coats  and  labor  all  day  at  felling  trees, 
or  planting  and  tilling  the  soil.  They  came  to 
live  comfortably  and  make  their  fortunes.  They 
thought,  as  their  aristocratic  friends  in  the  West 
Indies  thought ;  and  they  said  that  "  without  negro 
v  slaves  a  planter  can  never  do  any  great  matter.'7 
But,  for  a  long  time,  the  finest  plantations  on  Pam- 
lico  Sound  had  no  more  than  thirty  slaves  each,  and 
were  much  smaller  than  the  great  estates  of  Vir 
ginia  and  Maryland. 

BICE. 

At  first  the  planters  Raised  tobacco,  but  that  did 
not    pay   well,   because   the   English   market   was 


76  THE    COLONIES. 

bound  to  take  most  of  their  tobacco  from  Virginia 

c> 

and  Bermuda.  About  the  year  1694,  an  English 
captain,  touching  at  Charleston,  gave  a  few  hand- 
fills  of  rice  to  the  "wise,  sober,  well -living 
planter," — Governor  Thomas  Smith.  Governor 
Smith  and  his  friends  planted  this  gift  of  rice,  and, 
much  to  their  surprise,  they  harvested  a  successful 
crop.  More  was  planted  the  next  season  ;  and, 
after  a  few  years,  Carolina  had  rice  to  send  to  Eng 
land.  The  merchants  said  it  was  "the  best  of  the 
known  world."  '  Nearly  all  the  planters  then  began 
to  grow  rice.  No  other  colony  tried  to  compete 
with  them  ;  so  rice  soon  became  as  important  to  the 
South  Carolinians  as  tobacco  was  to  the  Virginians. 


to 
INDIGO. 


Nearly  fifty  years  after  Governor  Smith  started 
rice-growing  in  the  Charleston  tidewater  region, 
some  one  else  tried  a  crop  of  indigo.  It  was 
soon  found  that  this  valuable  dye-plant  grew  on 
land  which  would  not  grow  rice.  It  was  not  so 
costly  a  product  either,  and  fields  of  it  were  laid 
out  by  planters  who  had  not  the  capital  necessary 
to  start  rice-growing.  Indigo  plantations  then 
began  to  spread  among  the  swamps  of  the  country. 
Fresh  gangs  of  slaves  were  set  to  work,  and  many 
vessels  began  to  crowd  the  harbor  of  Charleston. 


THE    FAR    SOUTH.  77 

THE  CHARLESTON  SLAVE-MARKET. 

The  Charleston  slave-market  did  a  large  busi- 
'ness.     New  planters  came  in  great  numbers  after 


NEGRO  COTTON-GROWERS. 


the  rice-growing  began.  They  laid  out  vast  plan 
tations  all  along  the  tidewater  region  or  "low  coun 
try"  of  Clarendon  County,  its  creeks  and  rivers. 


J8  THE    COLONIES. 

Soon  the  negroes  were  brought  in  still  greater 
numbers  until,  after  a  short  time,  there  were 
almost  twiee  as  many  black  people  as  white  in  the 
low  country.  These  negroes,  who  were  brought  to 
South  Carolina,  could  not  long  endure  the  intense 
heat  and  hard  work  in  the  rice-swamps  and  the 
indigo-fields.  The  masters  drove  them  hard  while 
they  were  able  to  work.  "Nowhere  else  in  the 
South  was  slave-life  so  burdensome,  and  nowhere 
else  was  the  slave-trade  so  active."  One  year  of  a 
negro's  labor  in  the  indigo  or  rice  fields  more  than 
paid  for  his  cost.  After  a  time  thousands  of  slaves 
were  placed  at  work  in  cotton-fields. 

THE  OUTBREAK  OF  SLAVES. 

For  many  years  the  Spaniards  tormented  the 
Carolinians  by  giving  refuge  to  their  runaway 
slaves.  The  officers  at  St.  Augustine  not  only 
refused  to  give  up  the  negroes  to  their  masters, 
but  treated  the  poor  blacks  like  men  of  their  own 
race ;  settling  the  runaways  on  farms  of  their  own 
and  into  Spanish  military  companies,  with  their 
own  officers,  having  equal  rank  and  the  same  uni 
forms  as  the  Spaniards. 

In  the  year  1740,  nearly  all  the  slaves  in  South 
Carolina,  by  a  plan  arranged  among  themselves, 
suddenly  ran  away  across  the  wilds  of  the  sparsely 


THE    FAR    SOUTH. 


79 


AN  OLD  SPANISH  BUILDING. 


settled  province  of  Georgia,  toward  the  fortress  of 
St.  Augustine.  They  plundered  plantations,  and 
killed  the  English  colonists  on  their  way,  like  a 
vast  scourge  of  human  locusts.  The  plantations 
were  in  a  panic. 
Women  arid  chil 
dren*  running  for 
their  lives,  were 
captured  and  most 
brutally  treated. 

A  body  of  the 
colonial  militia 
rode  out  from  one 
of  the  towns  to  find  the  lawless  band  and  stop  them. 
Of  course,  the  negroes  were  a  great  disorderly 
herd,  eating  and  drinking  without  sense,  whenever 
they  fell  upon  full  pantries.  The  soldiers  found 
and  surrounded  them  at  one  of  their  wild  ban 
quets.  Most  of  them  were  captured  then  and 
there.  Some  got  away,  ^nd  some  were  shot  down 
in  their  efforts  to  kill  the  militia.  But  whatever 
happened  to  the  poor  creatures,  few  of  them 
reached  St.  Augustine. 

The  greater  number  of  the  captives  were  sent  to 
their  masters.  Carolina  and  Georgia  scouts  were 
posted  to  catch  the  rest  of  them,  and  also  to  take 
any  Spaniards  who  might  be  assisting  them.  Thus 


80 


THE    COLONIES. 


ended  "the  great  slave  insurrection,"  which  filled 
the  South  with  fright  and  horror. 

THE  COLONY  OF  GEORGIA. 

General  George  James  Oglethorpe  came  to 
America  to  found  a  colony  for  three  purposes.  It 
was  to  be  a  barrier  for  all  the  others  against  the 

Spaniards  of  Florida,  a 
refuse  for  Protestants 

o 

who  were  then  perse 
cuted  in  many  countries 
of  Europe,  and  a  home 
for  thousands  of  good 
Englishmen  who  had 
been  so  unfortunate  as 
to  be  thrown  into  prison 
for  debt. 

In  those  days,  when 
an  Englishman  could 
not  pay  a  debt,  he  was 
arrested  and  locked  up 
until  he  or  his  friends  paid  it.  Sometimes  good 
men,  who  were  sick  or  in  trouble,  were  kept  in 
prison  for  years,  obliged  to  live  with  coarse  crimi 
nals,  and  without  any  opportunity  to  work  and 
pay  their  debts. 

Oglethorpe    and    others    believed    that    in    the 


OGLETHORPE. 


THE    FAR    SOUTH.  81 

luxuriant  country  between  South  Carolina  and 
Florida,  these  people  could  make  good  livings  in 
vineyards,  indigo-fields,  and  silk-worm  orchards. 
Many  rich  men  were  willing  to  spend  thousands  of 
pounds  to  send  out  the  debtors  then  confined  in 
English  prisons  and  to  start  these  newr  industries. 
•  King  George  II.  favored  the  Colony,  because  he 
felt  tthe  need  of  it  as  a  military  post  against  the 
Spaniards  and  their  Indian  allies.  By  that  time 
they  had  been  harassing  the  Carolinas  for  nearly 
fifty  years,  and  had  been  in  open  war  for  nearly 
twenty  years.  So  his  Majesty  gave  patents  and  a 
charter  for  the  Colony — which  had  been  named 
Georgia  for  himself — to  Oglethorpe  and  nineteen 
other  gentlemen  "in  trust  for  the  poor." 

The  trustees  paid  the  creditors  of  many  good 
and  industrious  prisoners,  and.  in  1733,  sent  out  a 
company  of  one  hundred  and  fourteen  persons. 
Oglethorpe  took  charge  of  them.  He  brought 
tools  arid  supplies  and  everything  necessary  to  help 
his  colonists  to  make  happy  homes  for  their  fami 
lies  and  to  begin  life  over  again. 

SOUTH  CAROLINA'S  HELP. 

Many  South  Carolinians  turned  against  Ogle 
thorpe  in  later  years ;  but  they  gave  him  a  royal 
welcome  when  he  brought  his  colony  into  Charles- 


82 


THE    COLONIES. 


ton  harbor  for  a  day. '  An  old  writer  says  :  ''South 
Carolina  showed  an  universal  zeal  for  assisting-  its 
new  ally  and  bulwark.77 

The  people  gave  the  new-comers  presents  of  cat 
tle,  rice,  boats  and  many  other  important  and 
costly  things.  Mr.  Bull,  Acting  Governor  of  the 


SAVANNAH  IN  1741. 


Province,  went  on  with  Oglethorpe  to  help  him  ex 
plore  the  Savannah  River,  taking  some  experienced 
laborers  to  help  plant  the  first  settlement, 


SAVANNAH. 


Oglethorpe  went  twenty  miles  up  the  Savannah 
River  to  a  high,  sandy  bluff,  covered  with  pine 
trees,  where  there  was  a  small  Indian  settlement 


THE    FAR    SOUTH.  83 

called  Yamacraw.  There  he  founded  the  capital 
of  Georgia,  naming  it — from  the  river— Savan 
nah.  He  also  bought  the  land  of  the  Yarnacraws, 
—a  tribe  of  the  great  Creek  nation  of  Indians,— 
made  a  treaty  with  them,  and  laid  out  the  capital 
carefully,  so  that  it  should  not  grow  haphazard, 
as  most  of  the  settlements  had  grown.  He  suc 
ceeded  so  well  that  Savannah  has  always  been  one 
of  the  most  beautifully  arranged  cities  in  America. 
It  has  broad,  regular  streets  and  little  parks  at 
alternate  crossings.  There,  as  at  Charleston,  'the 
settlers  were  obliged  to  build  on  small  plots,  near 
together,  forming  a  compact  town,  while  their 
farms  were  larger  plots  at  a  distance.  In  Savan 
nah,  the  streets,  wards  and  other  divisions  of  the 
town  were  named  for  the  Trustees. 

HOW  THE  THIRTEENTH  COLONY  GREW. 

Other  towns  were  soon  started  on  much  the 
same  plan;  but  these  were  merely  groups  of  small 
farms.  "Horse  roads'7  from  one  to  another  were 
blazed  through  the  thick  woods.  At  first  no  slaves 
and  no  liquor  of  any  kind  were  allowed.  The 
Trustees  governed  the  Colony;  but  they  promised 
that  after  twenty-one  years  the  colonists  should 
govern  themselves.  Soon  people  came  to  Georgia 
from  all  the  other  colonies,  and  from  all  parts  of 


84  THE    COLONIES. 

Europe.  One  settlement  of  small  and  thrifty 
farms  was  made  on  the  Ogeechee  River  by  a  party 
of  Scotch  Highlanders  ;  another  was  laid  out  by  a 
band  of  Moravians  from  Spangenberg.  The  town 
of  Ebenezer,  on  the  Savannah  River,  was  planted 
by  a  company  who  fled  all  the  way  from  Augs 
burg  in  the  Eastern  Alps,  to  escape  the  persecu 
tions  of  the  Archbishop  of  Saltzburg.  Year  after 
year  other  exiles  came  from  Scotland,  Ireland, 
France,  and  many  of  the  German  states  ;  and  even 
a  party  of  Jews  found  refuge  at  Savannah. 

GENERAL  OGLETHORPE. 

If  you  had  lived  in  South  Carolina  or  Georgia 
during  these  old  colony  times  after  1740,  and  if 
you  had  been  a  strong,  healthy  boy  over  sixteen 
years  of  age,  you  would  have  been  in  the  colonial 
militia  under  General  Oglethorpe.  He  was  one  of 
the  best  and  noblest  men  who  was  ever  connected 
with  the  settlement  of  America.  The  king  made 
him  military  commander  of  both  provinces  for  the 
border  wars  with  the  Spaniards  in  Florida.  He 
had  under  him  one  thousand  colonists  and  soldiers, 
as  well  as  many  Indians  picked  from  the  friendly 
tribes.  The  militias  of  both  the  provinces  were 
companies  to  be  proud  of.  General  Oglethorpe 
was  proud  of  them,  and  they  looked  up  to  him. 


THE    FAR    SOUTH.  85 

You,  too,  would  have  looked  up  to  him  and 
served  him  gladly,  unless  you  had  been  a  mean  and 
jealous  fellow,  who  could  not  endure  to  love  and 
serve  a  great  man. 

There  were  many  men  in  South  Carolina  and 
Georgia  mean  enough  to  he  jealous  of  his  distinc 
tion,  and  who  hated  him,  because  his  high-minded 
plans  interfered  with  their  money-making.  He 
was  a  man  of  fortune  and  of  family;  he  had  served 
his  country  well  in  war  and  in  statesmanship  be 
fore  he  came  to  the  colonies.  So  all  his  good 
traits  were  ripened  by  experience.  He  founded 
Georgia  on  an  admirable  plan,  and  taught  the 
Spaniards  to  let  the  English  alone. 

FRONTIER  FORTRESSES. 

About  New  Years  of  1735,  Oglethorpe  brought 
over  a  new  company.  It  numbered  only  three 
hundred  persons,  who  came  from  many  different 
countries  ;  but  it  was  called  tire  "Grand  Embarka 
tion"  for  Georgia.  They  immediately  built  the 
town  of  Frederica,  on  St.  Simon's  Island,  for  a 
frontier  fortress.  Oglethorpe  made  it  "so  for 
midable  that  no  Spanish  force  would  venture  to 
leave  it  in  their  rear,"  and  attack  Savannah.  The 
fort  was  built  on  the  centre  of  a  bluff,  with  bat 
teries  set  to  guard  it ;  while  the  people  lived  in 


86  THE  COLONIES. 

pretty  little  tents  or  bowers  of  palmetto  branches, 
set  up  on  forks  and  poles  in  regular  rows.  The 
Indians  taught  the  white  men  to  make  huts,  with 
mats  woven  by  the  squaws. 

Farther   south,  St.  Andrew's  fort  was  placed  on 
Cumberland  Island,  and  an  extreme  outpost  was 


INDIAN  HUT  OK  MATS. 


set  upon  Amelia  Island,  but  the  Spaniards  took 
such  offense  at  this  that  it  had  to  be  given  up,  as 
the  English  did  not  want  a  war. 

Some  of  the  most  interesting  stories  of  the  early 
history  of  these  southern  colonies  are  the  stories 
of  the  Indians  and  of  the  troubles  with  Florida, 
when  Oglethorpe  was  in  command  of  the  English. 


87 


88  THE    COLONIES. 

But  his  success  only  increased  his  jealous  enemies, 
who  finally  drove  him  away  from  America.  He 
returned  to  England  a  greater  man  than  he  left  it. 
and,  in  the  long-  run,  his  enemies  only  did  harm  to 
themselves  and  to  the  new  colony. 

HOW  GEORGIA  BECAME  A  ROYAL  PROVINCE. 
THE  FIRST  SLAVES. 

The  Trustees  made  strict  laws  so  that  the  people 
should  be  sober  and  industrious  and  contented  with 
modest  farms.  At  first  the  colonists  were  all  hard 
working  and  frugal.  Some  one  said,  ' '  even  the  boys 
and  girls  do  their  part  ;  there  are  no  idlers  here." 
After  a  time,  a  different  sort  of  people  came  in. 
They  did  not  like  many  of  the  laws  ;  they  wanted 
to  start  large  plantations  with  slaves  ;  they  also 
wanted  to  import  rum  from  New  England  and 
Jamaica,  and  to  live  as  the  South  Carolina  planters 
lived. 

Oglethorpe  was  much  opposed  to  such  changes. 
He  said  that  when  slavery  came  into  Georgia  he 
should  leave  it.  This  made  many  enemies  for  him. 
Charges  were  made  against  him  in  England,  and, 
although  all  of  them  were  proved  false,  the  colo 
nists  gradually  won  their  ends.  Rum  and  large 
estates  were  allowed. 

Several  English  missionaries  came  to  preach  to 


THE    FAR    SOUTH. 


89 


the  Indians  and  the  colonists.  One  of  them,  George 
Whitefield,  succeeded  in  bringing  slaves  into  the 
Colony  to  work  a  plantation  as  a  home  for  orphans. 
This  Orphan  House,  at  Savannah,  was  one  of.  the 
most  cherished  plans  of  the  Trustees  and  others 
who  spent  their  fortunes  on  the  charities  of  Geor 
gia.  Then  efforts  were  made  to  over-ride  many 
other  of  the  laws,  and  the  result  was  that  the 
Trustees  gave  up  their  project  and  their  charter. 

Georgia  became  a  royal  province  in  1753,  when 
she  was  twenty  years  old. 

PROVINCIAL  LIFE. 

Captain  John  Reynolds,  of  the  British  Navy,  was 
sent  out  in  1754  by  King  George  II.  as  the  first 
Royal  governor  of  the  Thirteenth  Colony.  He  set 
up  a  royal  provincial  government,  such  as  most  of 
the  colonies  had  by  that  time.  It  was  a  govern 
ment  made  up  of  the  Governor,  his  Council  of  about 
a  dozen  leading  men  of  the  Province,  usually  ap 
pointed  by  the  king,  and  the  people's  delegates  or 
deputies,  all  sitting  together  in  regular  "parlia 
ment,"  or  General  Assembly.  There  were  then 
only  about  six  thousand  people  in  the  whole  Prov 
ince.  They  were  poor,  dissatisfied,  and  had  allowed 
their  towns  and  their  forts  to  run  down,  so  that 
the  settlements  were  scarcely  large  enough  to  be 


THE  COLONIES. 


nolds 


get    more 


included  in  the  important  movements  of  the  other 

twelve  colonies. 

In  the  time  of  the  Old   French  and  Indian  War, 

Governor     Rey- 
could   not 
than 

twenty  rangers 
to  enlist  in  an 
swer  to  the  call 
of  King  George 
II.  for  Georgia's 
share  of  troops. 
T  h  e  Assembly 
would  not  pro- 
v  i  d  e  f  o  o  d  f  o  r 
them  ;  and  for 
four  years  the 
Province  had 
not  even  defen 
ses  for  itself, 
much  less  any 
part  in  the  war 
waged  in  the 

KING  GEORGE  II.,  y-vi  •       -rr-    -11 

IN  WHOSE  HONOR  THE  PROVINCE  OF  GEORGIA  WAS  NAMED.       UlllO     Valley. 


SOUTHERN  COLONISTS,  INDIANS,  SPANIARDS. 


CHAPTEE  Y- 

THE  SOUTHERN  COLONISTS,   THE  INDIANS  AND 
THE  SPANIARDS. 

THE  wide  country  between  Virginia  and  Florida 
was  thickly  peopled  with  Indians. 

There  were  many  traders  in  all  the  principal 
settlements  in  North  Carolina,  South  Carolina  and 
Georgia.  They  were  employed  by  the  Proprie 
tors  or  the  colonists  or  trading  companies  of  Eng 
land.  They  were  hardy  men,  used  to  the  woods 
and  to  the  Indians.  Sometimes  they  went  one 
thousand  miles  on  foot  into  the  depths  of  the  for 
ests,  or  in  dugouts  and  canoes  up  winding  streams. 
They  brought  back  heavy  bundles  of  skins,  taken 
and  cured  by  the  Indians.  These  skins  were  the 
furry  coats  of  the  bear,  beaver,  wild-cat,  deer,  fox 
and  racoon.  They  were  bought  of  the  Indians 
for  cheap  trinkets  and  sold  in  London  for  high 
prices.  During  many  years  the  colonies  sent  more 
peltries  than  anything  else  to  England ;  but  the 
Carolinas  also  sent  large  cargoes  of  masts,  boards, 
oak  staves,  tar  and  turpentine  to  the  West  Indies 
and  to  England. 


THE    COLONIES. 


After  a  time  the  largest  trade  of  South  Carolina 
was  in  Indians,  in  negro  slaves  from  the  West  In 
dies,  and  in  rum  from  New  England.  The  plant 
ers  said  that  they  must  drink  plenty  of  rum  in  that 
climate  ;  and  they  did. 

SOUTH  CAROLINA  PLANTERS  AND  INDIANS. 

The  Proprietors  sent  strict  orders  that  the  Caro 
linians  should  not  settle  within  two  and  a  half 

miles  of  an  Indian 
town,  and  also 
that  the  colonists 
should  not  make 
slaves  of  the  In 
dians,  nor  ill-treat 
them  in  any  way. 
But  the  Proprie- 
tors;  wish,*  liml 

—  i*v"    F  _jrf<r^QN_  ^~  _j£V^O*Z     -    \L*.        £•      m*  ^.v-  ^^^.    I  i  •          i  /%~»  • 

as  little  effect  in 
this  matter  as  in 
others  when  they 
tried  to  control 
the  colonists. 

The  first  set 
tlers  in  South  Carolina  have  the  name  of  hav 
ing  used  the  Indians  badly  from  the  outset.  It 
is  said  that  the  planters  from  Barbadoes  had 


INDIAN 


MAN  A\  EAVINO. 


SOUTHERN  COLONISTS,   INDIANS,  SPANIARDS.       93 

the  idea  of  the  West  India  planters,  that  all 
dark-skinned  people  were  born  to  be  the  ser 
vants  of  the  light-skinned.  They  treated  the  In 
dians  as  they  treated  the  negroes.  When  the 
planters  from  Barbadoes  traded  witli  the  natives, 
they  did  not  trouble  themselves  to  deal  fairly  with 
them.  Yet  if  any  red  man  was  careless  of  the 
planters7  rights,  he  was  punished  severely,  even 
for  small  offenses. 

You  cannot  wonder  that  the  red  men  were  un 
friendly  to  the  colonists  about  Charles  Town. 
The  planters  and  their  laborers  soon  learned  that 
they  must  have  their  guns  always  within  reach. 
It  was  necessary  to  keep  a  strict  watch  for  Indian 
arrows,  which  came  whizzing  at  them  from  the 
trees  and  the  tall  grass  whenever  they  went  out  of 
doors.  The  natives  treated  the  planters  with  in 
sults,  stole  from  them,  burned  their  barns,  and  did 
many  such  things.  Sometimes  large  bands  of 
them  would  raid  one  plantation  after  another  for 
miles,  and  even  attack  the  settlements.  All  these 
dgirigs  were  merely  petty  depredations,  while  the 
tribes  pretended  to  be  at  peace.  Much  of  the 
time  some  of  them  were  in  open  warfare  with  the 
colonists. 

The  Westoes  opened  war  on  the  South  Carolina 
planters  the  year  that  Charles  Town  was  moved  to 


94  THE    COLONIES. 

Oyster  Point,  Governor  Joseph  West  took  prompt 
.measures  with  the  strong-,  well-armed  militia  of  the* 
young  colony.  If  he  had  not  been  so  quick  and 
skillful,  all  the  settlements  would  have  been  ruined. 

INDIAN   SLAVES. 

During  this  war  with  the  Westoes,  the  planters  be 
gan  to  kidnap  the  Indian  men,  women  and  children. 
Sometimes  the  captives  were  cruelly  kept  at  work 
tilling  tobacco-fields  on  their  own  hunting-grounds. 
Sometimes  they  were  sent  off  to  still  harder  life,  as 
slaves  in  the  West  Indies.  Soon  a  regular  slave- 
trade  in  red  men  was  opened. 

The  Council  offered  to  give  a  certain  price  for 
every  Indian  captive  brought  to  Charles  Town. 
The  Council  sold  these  prisoners  to  the  West  In 
dian  slave-traders,  as  they  said,  to  raise  money  for 
the  war ;  but  they  did  not  stop  when  the  war  was 
over.  The  Indians  never  made  £food  slaves,  be- 

O 

cause  they  grew  sick  and  died;  yet  for  a  long 
time  the  West  India  planters  were  willing  to  buy 
them.  The  traffic  was  so  profitable  that  it  was 
openly  supported  by  the  Council  and  by  Governor 
West,  who  was  a  man  of  many  noble  traits. 

An  old  writer  says,  Governor  West  was  ua  mod 
erate,  just,  pious  and  valiant  person;  yet  having  a 
Council  of  the  loose-principled  men,  they  grew  so 


INDIANS  AT  WORK, 
95 


96  THE    COLONIES. 

very  unruly  that  they  had  like  to  have  ruined  the 
Colony  by  abusing  the  Indians,  whom  in  prudence 
they  ought  to  have  obliged  in  the  highest  degree." 

THE  PROPRIETORS  PROTECTED  THE  INDIANS. 

When  the  Proprietors  heard  how  the  Indians 
were  taken  and  sold  for  slaves,  they  sent  word  to 
stop  the  business  at  once.  It  is  said  that  Governor 
West  took  sides  against  the  Proprietors,  but  he 
was  finally  removed  for  his  "  connivance  at  the 
barbarous  practice.77  For  nearly  fifty  years  one 
quarter  of  all  the  slaves  in  South  Carolina  were 
natives  of  the  country  in  which  their  masters  were 
intruders;  but  for  a  long  time  no  more  of  them 
were  sent  to  the  West  Indies. 

Under  the  Proprietors7  orders  the  Colony  was 
friendly  with  all  the  tribes  within  the  Carolina 
region,  except  a  few  allied  to  the  Spaniards,  who 
attacked  plantations  at  Port  Royal  and  other  places 
near  Florida.  The  planters  built  up  a  great  peltry 
traffic,  and  had  their  traders  and  storehouses  every 
where  among  the  "tame  and  peaceable  people,77 
from  Cape  Fear  to  the  Savannah  River  and  be 
yond  it. 

MOORE,  THE  RAIDER. 

When  Governor  James  Moore  went  to  Charles 
ton,  there  was  an  end  of  peace  with  the  Indians. 


SOUTHERN  COLONISTS,  INDIANS,   SPANIARDS.       97 

Moore  wanted  to  make  his  fortune  quickly,  so  he 
revived  the  Indian  slave-trade  with  the  West  In 
dies.  That  was  near  the  beginning  of  the  18th 
century.  About  the  time  that  Queen  Anne  took 
the  throne,  war  broke  out  between  England  and 
Spain.  Then  Moore  began  to  make  raids  on  the 
Spaniards  and  their  Indian  allies,  to  retaliate  for 
the  attack  on  Port  Royal,  and  to  take  all  the  plun 
der  he  could  find{ 

In  a  shortv  time,  the  country  was  aflame  with 
border  wars  between  the  Carolinians  and  the  Creek 
Indians  on  one  side,  and  the  Spaniards  and  Apa- 
chee  Indians  on  the  other.  Moore  led  the  militia 
of  the  Colony  to  many  a  fray.  He  was  usually 
successful.  He  returned  with  his  men  carrying 
packs  of  plunder  on  their  backs,  arid  driving  be 
fore  them  a  great  body  of  red-skinned  prisoners, 
who  were  sold  into  West  Indian  slavery. 

THE  COLONY'S  LOSS. 

Moore's  border  wars  were  a  great  loss  to  the 
Colony.  The  planters  were  called  away  from  their 
homes  and  their  affairs  to  serve  their  share  of  mili 
tary  duty.  Whether  they  wished  to  or  not,  they 
had  to  pay  heavy  taxes  to  build  and  maintain  forts 
on  the  frontier.  One  of  these  was  as  far  away  from 
the  settlements  as  the  present  Florida  boundary 


98  THE    COLONIES. 

near  the  Chattahoochee  River.  With  all  their  de 
fenses,  their  outer  plantations  were  often  destroyed, 
and  many  of  their  overseers  and  laborers  were 
killed.  The  expenses  became  so  large  that  the  Col 
ony  had  not  money  to  meet  them,  and  in  the  first 
year  of  the  next  century  the  South  Carolina  Parlia 
ment  issued  its  first  paper  money.  Five  thousand 
planters  assumed  a  public  debt  of  what,  in  our  day, 
would  be  nearly  six  hundred  thousand  dollars. 
Few  of  them  thought  that  they  had  their  money's 
worth  in  the  mere  fact  that  their  frontier  was  ex 
tended  in  the  direction  of  the  Spaniards  for  many 
hundreds  of  miles  of  pathless  forests. 

THE     TUSCARORAS'    OUTBREAK    AGAINST     NORTH 
CAROLINA. 

The  first  great  Indian  war  of  the  South  was  the 
outbreak  of  the  Tuscaroras  against  North  Carolina. 
The  Albemarle  settlers  had  traded  with  them 
and  lived  near  them  in  peace  and  good-will  for 
over  half  a  century.  The  end  of  this  long  peace 
came  in  mid-summer  of  1711.  The  settlers  did 
not  know  that  anything  was  wrong  with  their 
Tuscarora  friends,  till  one  day  a  runner  came  to 
them  with  the  news  that  the  savages  had  captured 
John  Lawson,  the  Surveyor- General ,  and  had 
burned  him  alive,  for  encroaching  on  their  lands. 


SOUTHERN  COLONISTS,   INDIANS,   SPANIARDS.       99 

The  planters  could  scarcely  believe  that  of  their 
friendly  neighbors.  But  there  was  no  doubting 
the  next  news,  which  was  that  a  party  of  Tus- 
caroras  had  utterly  destroyed  the  little  settlement 
of  German  Palatines  on  the  Neuse  River. 

UNPREPARED  FOR  WAR. 

The  Albemarle  planters  were  not  in  war  trim 
when  the  Tuscaroras  about  the  Neuse  River  decided 
to  wipe  out  their  settlements.  The  Colony  had  no 
militia  to  speak  of  and  was  more  than  half  made 
up  of  Quakers,  who  would  not  touch  a  gun.  When 
Governor  Hyde  called  for  forces,  the  party  which 
was  opposed  to  him — the  Colony  was  full  of  strife 
—refused  to  fight  almost  as  strongly  as  the 
Quakers. 

The  few  men  who  had  arms  and  were  willing 
to  use  them  had  little  training  and  no  respect  for 
discipline.  Hyde  did  his  utmost  with  them  and 
sent  post-haste  to  the  governors  of  the  neighboring 
colonies,  asking  for  aid.  The  generous  and  up 
right  Governor  Spots  wood,  of  Virginia,  could  not 
induce  his  people  to  do  anything  ;  but  Governor 
Moore  promptly  came  up  from  South  Carolina  with 
a  body  of  militia,  and  a  large  body  of  friendly 
Indians — from  the  Catawbns,  Yamassees,  Chero- 
kees  and  Creeks.  Although  they  could  not  talk 


100 


THE    COLONIES. 


with   Moore   as   the   Muskogi    talked   with   Ogle- 
thorpe,  in  their  own  tongue,  they  made  themselves 


TALKING  IN  SIGN  LANGUAGE. 


understood  by  interpreters  or  by  talking  in  sign- 
language. 

In  the  midst  of  the  terror,  Governor  Hyde  died 
and  yellow  fever  broke  out.  It  was  a  terrible  time. 
The  people  began  to  leave  the  Colony  as  fast  as 


SOUTHERN  COLONISTS,   INDIANS,  SPANIARDS.     101 

they  could.  Those  who  fled  to  Virginia  were  forced 
to  turn  back  at  once  and  help  the  others.  At  the 
same  time,  Governor  Spotswood  succeeded  in  rais 
ing  aid  for  them  among  the  Virginians. 

HOW  THE  SOUTH  CAROLINA  FORCES  MADE 
MATTERS   WORSE. 

The  South  Carolina  militia,  with  their  great  body 
of  Catawba,  Yamassee,  Creek  and  Cherokee  allies, 
checked  the  Tuscaroras^  first  outbreak  on  the  Neuse 
River,  arid  sent  them  into  one  of  their  forts  near 
New  Berne.  They  were  several  months  about  it, 
and  when  it  was  done  they  started  overland  for 
Charleston.  But  on  their  way  they  fell  upon  several 
quiet  Tuscarora  villages,  and  carried  the  natives 
off  for  slaves.  That  reopened  the  fighting  at  once. 

Nearly  all  the  tribes  of  the  Tuscarora  nation  then 
took  up  the  quarrel.  Every  settlement  in  the 
country  was  at  their  mercy  for  almost  two  years. 
Militia  from  Virginia  and  again  from  South  Caro- 

O  O 

Una  joined  to  aid  the  Albemarle  people.  Colonel 
Pollock  took  Governor  Hyde's  place,  managing 
better  than  the  Governor  had  done. 

The  Albemarle  Parliament  issued  their  first  paper 
money,  in  what  would  now  be  equal  to  two  hun 
dred  thousand  dollars,  to  supply  the  militia.  The 
people  buried  their  quarrels  in  order  to  unite  and 


102  THE    COLONIES. 

train  and  do  their  best  in  every  way,  until  the 
power  of  their  savage  enemies  should  be  completely 
broken. 

HOW  THE  TUSCARORAS  WERE  VANQUISHED. 

It  was  the  good  Virginia  Governor  Spotswood 
who  finally  broke  the  power  of  the  Tuscaroras. 
He  probably  saved  the  North  Carolina  Colony  from 
utter  ruin.  Hearing  that  there  was  a  split  among 
the  Tuscarora  tribes,  he  induced  one  of  the  factions 
to  make  peace  with  the  English.  That  left  but  a  part 
of  the  nation  to  fight.  Then  some  of  the  South 
Carolina  forces  fell  upon  one  of  their  largest  forts, 
in  what  is  now  Greene  County,  and  took  six  hun 
dred  warriors  at  once.  Other  victories  followed  ; 
and  four  years  after  their  outbreak  the  great  Tus 
carora  nation  was  driven  from  the  country.  Hun 
dreds  of  their  powerful  warriors  were  dead  ;  hun 
dreds  more  were  worse  than  dead  in  the  South 
Carolina  slave-market.  The  rest  were  thankful  to 
escape  and,  in  1715,  they  took  the  trail  to  the 
northwest  to  enter  the  Long  House  of -the  Iroquois 
at  Oneida  Lake,  New  York,  making  the  Confeder 
acy  of  the  Six  Nations. 

The  settlements  recovered  slowly.  The  people  of 
North  Carolina  were  not  a  religious  people,  as  we 
know  ;  but  for  many  years  they  held  a  solemn  fast- 


SOUTHERN  COLONISTS,   INDIANS,   SPANIARDS.     103 

day  on  the  anniversary  of  the  massacre  of  the  Ger 
man  settlement  on  the  Neuse  River. 

WAR  WITH  THE  YAMASSEES. 

The  Tuscaroras  had  scarcely  betaken  their  broken 
tribes  off  to  Oneida  Lake  when  the  Yarnassees,  who 
had  fought  against  them,  suddenly  turned  to  fight 
•the  settlers  on  their  own  account.  If  the  Yamas- 
sees  had  taken  sides  with  the  Tuscaroras  instead  of 
against  them,  they  might  have  driven  all  the  white 
men  out  of  the  Carolinas  in  a  single  day;  but,  by 
their  aid,  the  English  had  vanquished  the  angry 
tribes  and  sent  them  packing. 

Suddenly,  that  same  year  of  1715,  the  Yamassees 
grew  angry  over  being  asked  to  pay  their  debts 
to  the  South  Carolina  traders.  So  they  quickly 
passed  the  ''bloody  stick"  from  one  chief  to  an 
other  ;  which  meant  that  they  agreed  on  a  general 
war  to  kill  the  traders  and  all  their  Colony.  The 
Creeks  and  Uchees  joined  them.  On  Good  Friday 
they  surprised  the  Colony  in  three  places,  firing 
plantations  and  killing  about  two  hundred  settlers 
at  the  first  blow. 

The  wise  and  able  Governor,  Charles  Craven, 
lost  no  time  in  leading  out  a  body  of  militia  and 
four  hundred  armed  slaves.  Other  parties  were 
sent  out  in  several  directions.  But  the  woods 


104  THE    COLONIES. 

seemed  to  pour  forth  Indians  from  all  sides.  It  is 
said  that  ten  thousand  of  them  were  in  arms 
against  the  Colony,  which  did  not  number  half 
that,  including  men,  women  and  children.  The 
planters'  families  and  servants  fled  to  Charleston. 
Even  that  was  threatened  for  a  few  days. 

The  North  Carolinians  immediately  sent  what 
help  they  could  in  militia  and  stores.  New  York 
sent  some  supplies.  But  the  best  aid  ca*me  from 
Virginia.  The  Colony  did  something;  but  again, 
as  in  the  Tuscarora  war,  the  most  important  assist 
ance  was  given  by  the  Virginian  Governor  Spots- 
wood.  His  generosity  arid  his  influence  secured  a 
body  of  native  allies  to  strengthen  Craven's  small 
but  well-drilled  army  at  an  important  time. 

THE  YAMASSEES  DRIVEN  BACK  TO  FLORIDA. 

Craven  at  length  met  the  Yamassees  in  a  gen 
eral  fight  near  Port  Royal,  won  a  complete  vic 
tory  and  drove  them  across  the  border  into  Flor 
ida.  The  Spaniards  gave  them  hearty  welcome. 
They  had  been  friends  years  before  the  English 
came;  and  now,  when  they  returned,  the  Spaniards 
were  willing  to  let  bygones  be  bygones  and  re 
newed  the  alliance.  It  made  them  both  stronger 
against  the  English. 

After  the  victory  near  Port  Royal,  the  war  was 


SOUTHERN  COLONISTS,   INDIANS,  SPANIARDS.     105 

soon  over.  Every  one  had  reason  to  be  glad. 
The  South  Carolinians  had  lost  four  hundred  men, 
many  pioneer  settlements,  and  what  would  now 
be  equal  to  many  hundred  thousand  dollars.  But 
they  had  learned 
a  lesson.  Their 
Parliament  then 
did  what  Vir 
ginia  had  learned 

AN  INDIAN  SLIPPER. 

to  do  thirty  years 

before,  which  was  to  picket  the  whole  frontier  with 

rangers. 

Before  long,  venturesome  settlers  went  into  the 
fertile  region  that  had  been  occupied  by  the  Ya- 
massees.  Although  the  Florida  Indians  came  over 
the  border  in  scalping  parties,  and  small  frays 
sometimes  vexed  the  Colony,  South  Carolina  never 
had  another  serious  Indian  war. 

TROUBLE  OVER  PIRATES  IN  CAROLINA. 

The  Yamassees  from  that  time  on  were  allies  of 
the  Spaniards,  who  sheltered  debtors  and  crimi 
nals  against  the  law  of  the  Carolinians.  But  the 
Spaniards  suffered  so  much  from  the  pirates  who 
hid  in  the  many  bays  and  inlets  of  the  Carolina 
coast  that,  in  1725,  two  Spanish  commissioners 
visited  Charleston,  to  try  to  make  some  agreement 


106  THE    COLONIES. 

with  Governor  Middleton  whereby  both  sides 
should  stop  these  acts  of  ill-will.  For  some  reason 
they  did  not  succeed.  The  troubles  went  on  and 
increased.  So  many  negroes  ran  away  and  so  many 
plantations  were  wasted,  that  the  South  Carolini 
ans  could  keep  quiet  no  longer.  In  1727,  they  sent 
out  three  hundred  militia  and  a  party  of  Indian 
allies,  who  went  boldly  into  the  enemies'  country, 
destroying  the  Indian  villages  right  and  left  to 
within  a  mile  of  St.  Augustine. 

By  that  time,  "the  very  obstinate  young  gentle 
man,"  George  II.,  was  on  the  throne  of  England. 
He  gave  a  charter  for  the  founding  of  the  Colony 
of  Georgia  as  a  bulwark  against  Florida. 

The  throne  of  England,  you  know,  was  claimed 
by  the  son  of  James  II.,  "James  Stuart,  the  Pre 
tender.'7  Spain  took  up  his  cause,  which  had  a 
large  party  in  Scotland,  called  Jacobites,  from 
Jacobus,  the  Latin  for  James.  So,  in  1739,  Eng 
land  and  Spain  were  at  war  once  more. 

THE  FATHER  OF  THE  INDIANS. 

The  commander  in  the  Colonies'  share  of  King 
George's  Spanish  war  was  General  Oglethorpe, 
who  had  brought  out  the  colony  which  planted 
Georgia  iri  1733. 


SOUTHERN  COLONISTS,   INDIANS,  SPANIARDS.     107 

Of  all  the  white  men  who  had  dealings  with  the 
Indians  there  was  no  one  more  widely  known 
and  better  beloved  than  General  Oglethorpe,  the 
founder  of  Georgia.  No-  one  was  more  worthy 
of  respect  and  trust.  During  the  ten  years 
that  Oglethorpe  was  in  America  he  was  always 
occupied  with  the  Indians.  His  dealings  began 
with  a  tribe  of  Muskogi,  called  the  Yamacraws, 
from  whom  he  bought  the  land  for  Savannah.  He 
gradually  extended  his  friendship,  trade  and  alli 
ance  for  war  against  the  Spaniards.  In  a  short 
time  he  had  command  of  nearly  every  tribe  in  all 
the  vast  region  of  forest-covered  swamps  and  moun 
tains  between  Virginia  and  Florida. 

From  the  first,  the  Muskogi  tribes  called  Ogle 
thorpe  their  "  father.77  They  were  the  great  race 
south  of  the  Santee  River.  Their  tribes  occupied 
the  country  from  Florida  to  the  Mississippi.  Yon 
have  often  heard  of  some  of  the  Muskogi  tribes- 
such  as  the  Creeks,  the  Choctaws,  the  Chickasaws 
and  the  Yamassees. 

Oglethorpe  learned  the  Mustcogi  language,  and 
whenever  they  wanted  his  advice  they  went  to  his 
tent  or  his  house,  and  spoke  to  him  in  their  own 
tongue.  He  also  brought  a  warm-hearted  young 
preacher  from  England  to  preach  to  the  natives, 
and  teach  them  ways  of  goodness. 


108  THE   COLONIES. 

TOMO  CHICHI  AND  MARY  MUSGRAVE. 

Tomo  Chichi  was  the  Yamacraw  chief,  who  had 
a  village  on  the  bluff  where  Savannah  now  stands. 

When  Oglethqrpe  and  President  Bull,  of  South 
Carolina,  picked  out  the  bluff  as  the  place  to  plant 
the  new  colony,  they  fortunately  met  Mary  Mas- 
grave.  She  was  the  daughter  of  a  Creek  squaw 
and  a  white  man,  and  the  wife  of  a  white  trader. 
She  had  great  influence  with  the  Indians  of 
her  nation,  and  she  was  friendly  toward  the  Eng 
lish.  She  persuaded  Tomo  Chichi  that  it  would  be 
much  to  his  advantage  to  have  the  new  colony 
settle  on  his  land  She  told  him  that  General 
Oglethorpe  would  pay  him  well  for  the  bluff  and 
other  lands  ;  she  said  that  he  would  open  a  good 
trade  with  his  tribe.  Besides,  she  told  him  that  the 
General  was  a  great  officer  in  the  English  king's 
army,  and  that  he  had  come  over  with  colonists 
and  soldiers  who  would  protect  the  people  of  the 
Savannah  against  all  of  their  enemies,  most  of 
whom  were  united  with  the  Spaniards. 

Then  the  Yarnacraws  sold  the  land  to  Ogle 
thorpe  and  made  treaties  of  peace  and  trade  with 
him.  It  is  said  that  Tomo  Chichi  and  his  braves 
went  to  the  General's  tent  with  a  huge  buffalo-skin, 
on  the  inner  side  of  which  they  had  painted  the 
head  and  feathers  of  an  eagle.  They  said :  "  Here 


SOUTHERN  COLONISTS,   INDIANS,   SPANIARDS.     109 

is  a  little  present.  The  feathers  of  the  eagle  are 
soft,  signifying  love  ;  the  skin  of  the  buffalo  is 
warm,  and  is  the  emblem  of  protection.  ;  therefore, 
love  and  protect  our  little  families."  After  the 
Colon v  was  settled,  Toino  Chichi  went  to  England 

Kl  O 


GENERAL  OGLETHORPE  PRESENTING  TOMO  CHICHI  TO  QUEEN  CAROLINE. 
(From  an  old  print.} 

with  the  General  and  stayed  with  him  for  two  years, 
till  Oglethorpe  returned  with  the  "Grand  Em 
barkation/'  That  was  a  large  body  of  several  hun 
dred  colonists  who  were  sent  out  by  the  Trustees. 

THE  GREAT  ALLIANCE  AGAINST  THE   SPANIARDS. 

Georgia,  you  know,  was  planted  partly  as  Eng 
land's  outpost  against  the  Spaniards,  and  most  of 


110  THE    COLONIES. 

its  early  history  is  made  up  of  fort-building  and 
wars  with  Florida  and  the  Indians  allied  to  the 
Spaniards. 

King  George  II.  gave  Ogiethorpe  command  of 
the  military  affairs  of  the  three  southernmost  colo 
nies.  You  might  say  that  he  placed  himself  in 
command  of  all  the  Southwestern  Indians.  ' '  By  his 
frankness  and  fidelity,  Ogiethorpe  secured  a  wide 
and  prompt  alliance." 

In  the  summer  of  1739,  the  civil  and  war  chiefs 
of  the  Muskogi  held  a  general  council  in  Cusitas, 
on  the  Chattahoochee  River.  Ogiethorpe  went 
into  the  large  square  of  their  council-place,  dis 
tributed  presents,  and,  in  their  own  language,  "re 
newed  and  explained  their  covenants.''  It  was 
then  agreed  that  the  land  from  the  St.  John's  River 
to  the  Savannah  River,  from  the  sea  to  the  moun 
tains,  belonged  to  the  Muskogi.  To  Georgia  they 
ceded  the  vast  strip  of  this  land  between  the  Savan 
nah  and  the  O^eechee  rivers  as  far  into  the  interior 

£} 

as  the  tide  flows.  Without  this  stanch  alliance  the 
General  could  not  have  made  his  successful  attacks 
on  the  Spaniards,  nor  could  he  have  repelled  them 
when  they  tried  to  attack  his  forts. 

The  long  troubles  with  the  Spaniards  were  over 
when  Florida  was  ceded  to  England  in  17(>3. 


EARLY    SCENES    IN    THE    MIDDLE    REGION.        Ill 


CHAPTER  VI. 

EARLY   SCENES   IN   THE    MIDDLE   REGION. 

WHEN  we  speak  of  the  middle  region  of  the 
Thirteen  Colonies,  we  mean  all  the  country  now 
included  in  the  States  of  Delaware,  Pennsylvania, 
New  Jersey  and  New  York. 

In  the  first  half  of  the  17th  century,  all  this  and 
more,  extending  to  the  Connecticut  River,  was 
claimed  by  the  Dutch  as  their  New  Motherland. 
But  not  a  dozen  years  after  the  Dutch  be^an  to 

«/  C5 

settle  their  province,  the  Swedes  took  some  of  the 
Delaware  region  for  New  Sweden.  During  over 
thirty  years  they  held  it  by  "  Rob-Roy  "  law  ;  that 
is,  the  power  of  the  strongest. 

At  the  same  time,  people  from  all  the  countries 
of  Europe  soon  came  over  arid  mingled  with  the 
Dutch  in  the  towns  of  New  Motherland,  because 
the  government  of  Holland  promised  protection  to 
people  of  all  Protestant  religions. 

INDIANS  OF  NEW  NETHERLAND. 

The  natives  of  the  country  claimed  by  the  Dutch 
were  all  of  the  great  Algonkin-Lenape  race.  They 


112 


THE    COLONIES. 


were  divided  into  many  nations  and  tribes.  The 
lower  waters  of  the  Hudson  were  held  by  several 
tribes  of  River  Indians,*  including  "  a  cruel  nation 
of  Manhattas."  Manhatta  was  the  Indian  word  for 

island,  but  Eu 
ropeans  used  it 
as  the  name  for 
the  island  be 
tween  the  Hud 
son  and  the  East 
rivers.  On  the 
upper  waters  of 
the  Hudson  the 
west  bank  was 
occupied  by  the 
terrible  Mo 
hawks,  who  laid 
tribute  on  the 
surrounding 
tribes.  Across 
the  river  were 
the  Mohicans,  ranging  the  mountains  toward  the 
Connecticut,  beyond  which  were  the  Pequots.  On 
the  west  shore  of  what  is  now  New  York  harbor  and 
on  Staten  Island  were  the  Raritans.  Farther  in 
land  were  the  Hackensacks,  arid  beyond  them,  in  the 
*  The  River  Indians  were  called  Mahicanders. 


THE  MIDDLE  COLONIES. 


EAKLY'  SCENES  IN  THE  MIDDLE  REGION.    113 

country  drained  by  the  Schuylkill  River,  extend 
ing  across  the  Delaware  Bay,  were  the  Minsi  and 
Leni-Lenapes,  afterwards  called  the  Delawares. 
On  Sewarihacky,  or  Long  -Island,  were  several 
nations,  the  most  powerful  of  which  were  the  Mon- 
tauks,  who  held  sway  over  thirteen  tribes.  On  the 
sandy  shores  of  their  territory  were  quantities  of 
the  shells  from  which  the  Indians  made  their  shell 
money,  or  wampum,  which  was  a  great  source 
of  wealth  to  the  Montauks  and  of  jealousy  among 
the  othe.r  nations. 

THE  DUTCH  AND  THE  INDIANS. 

The  Dutch  came  to  America  simply  to  build  up 
a  good  fur-trade  with  the  natives.  The  English, 
Spanish  and  French  all  had  great  schemes  to 
build  large  cities,  and  to  try  to  teach  the  Indians 
their  religions  and  their  ways  of  life.  The  Dutch 
had  no  such  visions.  They  came  on  business,  and 
they  began  at  once  to  deal  with  the  red  men  in  a 
plain  business-like  manner. 

For  a  dozen  years  or  so  after  Hudson's  discovery, 
voyagers  were  sent  out  by  a  few  enterprising  Dutch 
merchants,  who  ventured  their  own  fortunes  in 
ships  and  men  to  trade  with  the  Indians  of  the 
Great  River,  which  the  Dutch  called  the  Mauritius 
for  Prince  Maurice,  Stadholder  of  their  Republic. 


114  THE    COLONIES. 

For  a  short  time  there  was  the  United  New  Nether- 
land  Company,  which  sent  out  many  vessels  and 
traders.  They  soon  built  several  trading-posts  in 
different  parts  of  the  region  to  cover  the  whole 
claim.  The  posts  were  known  as  "factories"  ;  the 
man  in  charge  of  one  of  them  was  the  "factor." 

THE  FIRST  FACTORIES. 

It  is  said  that  the  Dutch  began  to  take  possession 
of  New  Netherland  the  year  after  Hudson's  dis 
covery.  Perhaps  some  traders  came  over  and  built 
huts  on  the  banks  of  "  Hudson's  "River,"  in  1610, 
when  there  were  no  English  on  the  coast  except 
at  Jamestown  and  at  Pemaquid  and  Monhegan 
Island  in  Maine. 

One  of  the  first  Dutch  factories  was  on  the  end 
of  Manhattan.  Another,  or  at  any  rate,  a  redoubt, 
probably  was  where  some  part  of  Jersey  City  now 
stands.  Others  were  built  at  the  head  of  the  Dela 
ware  Bay,  then  known  as  the  South  Bay.  Some 
writers  believe  that  still  another  was  on  what  the 
Dutch  called  the  Yarsche,  or  Fresh  River  ;  the  In 
dian  name  was  Connecticut,  which  meant  the  Long 
River.  It  is  certain  that  the  Dutch  built  a  fort 
there  several  years  later.  They  had  much  trouble 
with  the  English,  who  followed  them  and  built 
the  town  of  Hartford,  across  the  river. 


EARLY    SCENES    IN    THE    MIDDLE    REGION.        115 

At  first,  every  one  thought  that  the  most  import 
ant  of  all  the  forts  was  one  situated  some  distance  up 
the  Great  River,  on  an  island  near  what  is  now  the 
city  of  Albany.  This,  some  say,  was  an  old  French 
fort  rebuilt  by  the  Dutch  and  named  Fort  Nassau, 


MANHATTAN  ISLAND,  AS  THE  DUTCH  FOUND  IT. 

in  honor  of  the  Stadholder  Maurice, 
who  was  Prince  of  Orange  and  Count  of  Nassau. 
The  forts  were  built  of  heavy,  unhewn  logs,  laid 
one  above  another,  fitting  securely  at  the  corners, 
the  open  places  filled  with  mud  that  dried  hard  in 
a  sort  of  cement.  Around  the  forts  were  large 
square  stockades,  sometimes  with  wide  moats  out- 


116  THE    COLONIES. 

side  of  the  stockades.  The  forts  were  mounted  with 
a  few  large  guns  and  several  swivels.  A  number 
of  men  were  kept  on  duty  as  garrisons,  while  many 
others,  who  were  traders,  went  out  into  the  dense 
forests  in  all  directions.  Friendly  Indians  guided 
these  fearless  Dutch  traders  through  the  beautiful, 
strange  country,  and  introduced  them  to  the  dis 
tant  savages.  In  this  way  the  Dutch  opened  up  a 
valuable  peltry  trade.  They  also  learned  to  use 
the  Indians7  wampum,  or  shell  money,  made  by  the 
Montauks  of  Long  Island. 

FRENCH  RIVALS. 

The  Mohawks  soon  told  the  Dutch  that  they  had 
already  traded  with  white  men.  French  traders 
had  visited  the  river  for  many  years.  They  had 
settlements  on  the  St.  Lawrence  River,  from  which 
they  came  down  to  the  upper  waters  of  the  Iro 
quois  country.  They  had  told  the  Iroquois  that 
they  wanted  all  their  trade.  But  the  French  had 
taken  up  a  quarrel  of  the  Huron  nation,  one  of  the 
enemies  of  the  Iroquois.  The  Hurons,  with  the  help 
of  the  French  and  their  strange  and  deadly  weapons, 
had  made  war  on  the  Iroquois,  putting  them  in 
great  distress,  because  arrows  were  feeble  weap 
ons  against  the  Frenchmen. 

The  leader  of  these  first  trading  parties  through 


EARLY    SCENES    IN    THE    MIDDLE    REGION.        117 

the  region  of  the  Hudson  was  Jacob  Eelkins.  He 
was  sent  out  by  the  United  New  Netherland  Com 
pany. 

THE    FIRST  TREATY    BETWEEN  WHITE    MEN  AND 
RED  MEN. 

The  fort  on  Castle  Island  was  so  nearly  ruined 
by  a  freshet  that  Eelkins  built  another  at  the  mouth 
of  Norinan's-Kill,  a  few  miles  farther  down  the 
river.  The  Dutch  called  it  the  Noordtman's-Kill, 
or  Norseman's  Creek,  because  a  Norseman  once 
had  a  farm  there. 

When  the  fort  was  finished,  Eelkins  held  a 
famous  house-warming.  It  was  his  own  or  some 
other  Dutchman's  brilliant  thought  to  draw  toge 
ther  representatives  of  all  the  natives  of  the  great 
region  of  New  Netherland  for  a  solemn  treaty  with 
him  for  the  States-General  of  Holland.  He  laid 
his  plan  before  the  Sachems  of  the  Mohawks.  It 
was  a  good  plan,  they  said,  to  strengthen  them 
against  their  enemies,  who  had  their  French  friends. 
So  the  Mohawks  notified  the  other  four  nations  of 
the  Iroquois.  Their  Council  met  in  their  "Long 
House  "  and  agreed  to  make  the  treaty.  They  sent 
out  runners  to  all  who  were  in  league  with  them 
or  paid  tribute  to  them,  calling  upon  them  to  send 
their  sachems  to  Norrnan's-Kill — which  they  called 


118  THE    COLONIES. 

by  the  long  and  musical  Indian  name  of  Tawa- 
sentha,  which  meant  "the  place  of  many  dead."  Tt 
was  of  this  place  that  Longfellow  wrote: 

In  the  Vale  of  Tawaseutha, 

In  the  green  and  silent  valley 

By  the  pleasant  water-courses. 

Dwelt  the  singer  Ma  wadaha. 

Round  about  the  Indian  village 

Spread  the  meadows  and  the  corn-fields, 

And  beyond  them  stood  the  forest, 

Stood  the  groves  of  singing  pine-trees, 

Green  in  summer,  white  in  winter, 

Ever  singing,  ever  singing." 

And  the  pleasant  water-courses, 

You  could  trace  them  through  the  valley, 

By  the  rushing  in  the  spring-time, 

By  the  alders  in  the  summer, 

By  the  white  fog  in  the  autumn, 

By  the  black  line  in  the  winter; 

And  beside  them  dwelt  the  singer, 

In  the  Vale  of  Tawaseiitha, 

In  the  green  and  silent  valley. 

As  the  sachems  of  these  many  tribes  were  bid 
den,  so  they  gathered  in  the  neighborhood  of  the 
white  strangers7  log  fort.  There,  in  1618,  on  the 
famous  hill" of  Tawassgunshee,  they  held  a  great 
council  with  the  Dutch.  "They  held  the  belt  of 
peace  as  a  sign  of  union;  they  smoked  the  calumet, 
and  they  buried  a  tomahawk  at  a  spot  where  th£ 
Dutch  promised  to  build  a  church  to  cover  it,  so 
that  it  could  not  be  dug  up."  The  natives  prom- 


119 


120  THE    COLONIES. 

ised  to  bring  all  their  valuable  furs  to  the  Dutch, 
and  the  Dutch  promised  to  sell  muskets  and  car 
bines  to  the  Five  Nations,  and  to  no  other  natives. 
This  was  an  everlasting  bond  between  the  great 
tribes  of  the  Iroquois  and  the  Dutch,  and  after 
the  Dutch  were  conquered  by  the  English,  the 
alliance  was  renewed  with  them.  If  this  treaty  of 
1618  had  not  been  made,  there  would  have  been 
no  barrier  to  keep  the  French  from  entering,  and 
probably  settling,  the  region  of  the  Hudson  River. 

THE  DUTCH  WEST  INDIA  COMPANY, 

If  you  know  anything  of  the  history  of  the  Hol 
landers,  you  know  that  they  had  dreadful  times  in 
these  years.  They  could  think  no  more  of  New 
Netherland  until  after  Grotius  was  imprisoned  and 
John  of  Olden  Barneveldt  was  beheaded. 

Then,  in  1621.  a  new  trading  company  was  char 
tered.  That  was  the  Dutch, West  India  Company. 
You  have  learned  by  this  time  that  many  of  our 
colonies  were  planted  by  the  stock  companies  or 
corporations  formed  in  Europe.  The  Dutch  West 
India  Company  was,  perhaps,  the  largest  and 
richest  of  all  the  corporations  that  had  anything  to 
do  with  America.  When  they  began  to  send  colo 
nies  to  New  Netherland,  their  funds  were  equal  to 
more  than  thirty-seven  million  dollars  of  our  money. 


EARLY    SCENES    IN    THE    MIDDLE    REGION. 


121 


You  see  they  could  furnish  the  colonists  with  all 
that  they  needed  in  the  new  country  ;  they  could 
save  them  from  the  suffering  and  loss  which  crip 
pled  most  of  the  English  colonies. 

The  Company  was  also  able  to  manage  every 
thing  as  they  thought  best.  No  great  king  of  old 
times  had  much  more  power  in  his  own  kingdom 
than  this  Company  had  over  New  Netherland  and 


HOUSE  OF  THE  D.  W.  I.  COMPANY  IN  AMSTERDAM. 

all  the  Dutch  trade  in  the  New  World.  Fifty  gun 
boats  and  armed  yachts  were  at  their  service,  and 
a  body  of  Dutch  soldiers.  But  the  Company  was 
not  allowed  to  fight  with  the  subjects  of  any  coun 
try  with  which  Holland  was  at  peace. 

Nearly  all  the  greatest  merchants  of  Holland  had 
in    the  Company.     They  were  formed  into 


122 


THE    COLONIES. 


DUTCH 


different  divisions,  with  a  board  or  chamber  for 
each  of  the  five  principal  divisions  of  the  United 
Provinces.  These  chambers  and  the  States-Gen 

eral    elected    nineteen    dele 
gates,  who  were  directors  of 
the    entire    Company.     This 
is   told    yon    because,   when 
yon    read    almost    anything 
about  the  New  Netherlands, 
you  are  likely  to  hear  more 
or  less  about  the  Assembly 
of  Nineteen.      Many  grown 
COMPANY^    people  are  often  puzzled  to 
know     who    this     Assembly 
were,  that  they  should  have  so  much  to  say,  and 
that   the  people   should    send    addresses  to   them 
when  matters  went  wrong  in  the  Colony. 

The  Colony  was  put  under  the  special  care  of 
the  Amsterdam  Chamber.  That  is  the  reason  the 
chief  trading-post  and  fort  on  Manhattan  Island 
was  called  New  Amsterdam.  The  Amsterdam 
Chamber  did  many  good  things  for  the  colonists  ; 
but  sometimes  it  neglected  them.  More  than  once 
the  settlers  appealed  to  the  Chamber  of  Nineteen, 
and  even  to  the  States-General,  which  was  above 
all,  of  course,  because  it  was  the  Government  of 
the  United  Provinces. 


EARLY  SCENES  IN  THE  MIDDLE  REGION.   123 


This  Company  kept  control  of  the  Colony  for 
forty  years.  They  were  not  always  so  rich  nor  so 
wise  in  their  policy  as  at  first ;  but  their  flags  flew 
over  the  forts  of  the  Colony  until  the  English 
conquered  it,  and  that  was  much,  longer  than  any 
English  company  was  allowed  to  retain  its  power 
in  North  America. 

THE  WEST  INDIA  COMPANY'S  COLONIES. 

The  Company  at  once  sent  out  Captain  Cornelius 
JacobsenMey — now  usually  spelled  "May."  With 
him  were  settlers 
and  traders  and  sol 
diers  to  enlarge  the 
four  posts  already 
started  and  to  build 
others.  Most  of 
them  were  sent  to 
the  region  of  the 

D 

Mohawk  Indians,  a 
hundred  miles  up 
the  Great  River. 

When  Captain 
Mey  brought  out 
the  Company's  first 

colony   in   1623,   he    "seated"   a  few  families 
the  Waelenbogt,  or  Waloon  Bay,  which  is  now  the 


OLD  SILVER  TANKARD. 

A  wedding  present  to  the  first  white  girl 
born  in  New  Netherland,  Sarah  Jansen  de 
Rapalje,  born  at  Wallabout,  June  6,  1625. 


on 


124  THE    COLONIES. 

Wallabout.  They  began  the  town  of  Breuckelyn. 
It  is  said  that  a  few  other  families  planted  where 
Jersey  City  is  now,  while  some  were  taken  to  the 
Fresh  River,  some  to  the  South  River,  and  two 
settlements  were  made  several  miles  up  the  Great 
River. 

FORT  ORANGE. 

Many  immigrants  were  taken  up  the  Great 
River  ;  but  Jacob  Eelkins  was  not  placed  in  charge 
of  them,  because  he  had  misbehaved  and  been  dis 
missed  from  the  Colony.  The  new-comers  built 
Fort  Orange,  naming  it  for  Prince  Maurice.  At 
the  same  time  others  laid  out  farms  and  planted 
grain.  Their  home-making  was  begun  in  rough 
huts  of  bark,  which  the  Indians  kindly  helped 
the  settlers  to  build.  Before  long  the  busy  Dutch 
men  had  sawmills  at  work,  and  were  building 
themselves  comfortable  little  one-story  houses  with 
garrets  under  thatched  roofs.  There  were  usually 
two  rooms  on  the  ground  floor.  There  was  not 
much  furniture.  Each  family  had  brought  its 
great  chest  and  its  "sleeping-bench  "  with  the  good 
mother's  feather  bed.  But  the  chairs  were  often 
stumps  from  the  forests,  and  the  tables  and  dress 
ers  were  rude  boards  as  they  came  from  the  primi 
tive  little  sawmills. 

Year  by  year  F*ort  Orange  grew  to  be  a  large 


EARLY    SCENES    IN    THE    MIDDLE    REGION.        125 

and  important  settlement.  When  it. was  ten  years 
old,  the  people  boasted  that  they  had  an  "elegant 
large  house,  with  balustrades,  and  eight  small 
dwellings." 

ON  THE  SOUTH  BAY. 

Captain  Mey  himself  took  charge  of  the  party 
to  settle  on  the  South  Bay,  which  we  call  the 
Delaware.  The  school-books  do  not  tell  much 
about  the  history  fcof  the  beautiful  bay  and  river 
between  New  Jersey  and  Delaware.  Yet  in  early 
times  they  were  considered  of  vast  importance. 
Many  settlements  were  planned  for  them. 

Captain  Mey,  in  some  of  his  first  visits  to  the 
country,  had  put  his  own  name  on  what  he  thought 
the  most  beautiful  and  important  parts  of  this  re 
gion.  What  we  call  New  York  Harbor,  he  called 
Port  Mey  ;  the  lower  end  of  New  Jersey  he  called 
Cape  Mey  ;  another  point  was  Cape  Cornelius  ;  and 
this  beautiful  South  Bay  was  his  New  Port  Mey. 

The  English  claimed  this  region,  and  named  the 
bay  and  river  for  Lord  De  la  Warre,  the  first  gov 
ernor  of  Virginia  ;  but  for  many  years  both  Dutch 
arid  English  usually  said  the  South  Bay  and  the 
South  River. 

FORT   NASSAU. 

Captain  Mey  took  with  him  to  the  head  of  his 
New  Port  Mey  "  a  number  of  persons  and  all  the 


126  THE    COLONIES. 

necessary  means  for  building-  a  colony.77  On  what 
is  now  the  most  northerly  branch  of  the  Glouces 
ter  River,  they  built  a  stout  log-house,  which  they 
called  Fort  Nassau — loyal  as  the  others  to  Prince 
Maurice.  Round  about  this  fort  the  colonists 
made  their  farms.  It  was  the  first  settlement  on 
the  Delaware  and  in  western  New  Jersey,  the  be 
ginnings  of  white  men  in  what  was  long  afterwards 
the  Quaker  town  of  Gloucester*.  It  was  a  valuable 
trading-post,  with  many  tribes.  Some  of  them 
came  down  the  Schuylkill  River  with  heavy  loads 
of  skins. 

More  than  one  Indian  trail  crossed  the  big 
peninsula  which  we  call  New  Jersey.  Soon  Dutch 
men,  as  well  as  red  men,  made  their  way  overland 
from  Fort  Nassau  to  the  shores  now  covered  by 
the  wharves  of  Elizabethport.  There  they  took 
canoes  for  Fort  Amsterdam.  For  money  in  this 
trading  rhe  Dutch  used  beaver-skins  and  wampum. 
After  a  time  wampum  became  the  regular  cur 
rency,  the  Director  fixing  the  value  of  the  black 
and  the  white  shells,  as  our  Congress  fixes  the 
value  of  our  coin  arid  bills. 


THE    DUTCH    COMPANIE. 


127 


CHAPTER  VII. 

"  THE  DUTCH  COMPANIE." 

COLLEGE  boys  sing  an  old  song  : 

"The  Dutch  compauie  was  the  best  companie 
That  ever  came  over  from  the  old  countrie." 

IN  some  respects  the  couplet  is  good  history.    It 
was  true  at  first,  and  probably  jNTew  Netherland 


FIRST  PICTURE  OF  NEW  AMSTERDAM. 


would  have  been  the  greatest  colony  in  America, 
if  it  had  always  been  as  well  managed  as  it  was  at 
first  under  Peter  Minuit.  It  was  the  most  fortu- 


128  THE    COLONIES. 

nate  of  all  the  colonies  in  its  broad,  deep  harbor 
close  to  the  ocean,  and  in  its  river- ways  running- 
far  into  the  country.  It  had  the  most  temperate 
climate,  the  richest  soil,  the  finest  timber,  and 
the  best  Indian  trade.  The  first  settlers  were  still 
more  fortunate  in  being-  so  well  managed  that  they 
could  take  advantage  of  all  these  natural  benefits. 
At  the  outset,  the  Dutch  companies  were  relig 
ious  and  industrious  families— not  rascals,  ruled 
out  of  decent  society  at  home,  as  were  many  of  the 
early  colonists  of  Virginia  and  of  New  France. 
This  was  before  the  days  of  Maryland  or  Rhode 
Island,  and  no  colony  had  ever  been  planned  on 
such  liberal  terms.  The  people  .of  almost  every 
nation  and  faith  in  Europe  were  free  to  come  and 
worship  as  they  saw  fit,  so  long  as  they  disturbed 
no  one  else  ;  and  the  army  and  navy  of  Holland 
were  promised  to  defend  them  against  outside 
enemies. 

EASY  TERMS. 

The  price  of  one  person's  passage  was  fixed  at 
what  would  be  about  sixty-five  cents  in  our  day. 
The  settlers  were  supplied  with  good  tools  and 
good  food. 

The  Company  held  all  the  land  at  first.  Each 
colonist  could  take  up  his  plot  for  life,  paying  his 
rent  in  a  small  portion  of  what  he  raised.  He 


DUTCH    COMPANIE."  129 

could  own  his  cabin,  cows  and  other  stock.  He 
could  increase  his  wealth  by  his  work  arid  enter 
prise.  He  also  made  something  for  himself  in  his 
service  to  the  Company,  which  built  warehouses, 
opened  shipyards,  and  gave  work  to  hundreds  of 
men.  Same  were  laborers,  who  broke  up  the  ground 
and  planted  orchards  and  fields  ;  some  worked  in 
the  factories ;  some  went  among  the  Indians  to 
trade.  There  was  much  to  do  in  the  shipping  of 
goods  to  the  Company's  ports  in  Europe,  and  in 
the  commerce  that  was  started  with  the  English 
as  soon  as  they  planted  their  colonies  along  the 
coast. 


HOW  NEW  NETHERLAND  WAS  GOVERNED. 

The  Director-General  and  a  Council  of  Five, 
who  were  sent  out  from  Holland,  were  supposed 
to  govern  all  the  local  affairs  of  the  Colony,  accord 
ing  to  the  orders  given  by  the  Amsterdam  Cham 
ber.  The  New  Netherlander  did  not  have  free 
government  under  their  own  laws.  The  Director 
had  almost  as  much  power  over  the  colonists  as  a 
king.  He  had  charge  of  all  the  purchases  of  land 
from  the  Indians.  He  made  the  treaties,  and  was 
head-manager  of  all  the  trade.'  He  gave  orders 
about  laying  out  settlements  and  directed  the 
building  of  the  forts.  He  had  especial  care  of  all 


130 


THE    COLONIES. 


the  works  at  New  Amsterdam,  which  was  the  main 
fortress  of  the  Colony. 

There  was  also  a  Koopman,  who  was  Secretary 
of  the  Province,  bookkeeper  of  the  Company's 
warehouses  and  keeper  of  the  the  first  store  in 

New  York  —  a 
corner  store, 
filled  with  all 
sorts  of  things 
needed  by  the 
colonists.  The 
Schont-fiscal  was 
an  officer  who 
had  the  duties 
of  attorney- 
general,  sheriff  and  customs  -  officer.  He  was 
also  beadle  and  tithing-man  on  Sundays.  There 
were  also  the  Visitors  of  the  Sick.  They  were 
lay-readers,  who  visited  the  people  in  their  little 
log  cabins  to  comfort  and  help  them,  and  who 
read  to  them  from  the  Bible  on  Sundays.  The 
meetings  were  held  in  the  loft  of  a  horse-mill  near 
the  fort.  The  people  sat  on  rude  benches  of  partly 
hewn  logs,  and  the  Visitors  of  the  Sick  read  from 
a  desk  made  perhaps  in  the  same  rough  style. 
After  a  time  a  church  was  built,  and  a  regular 
minister  came  out  to  the  Colony. 


DUTCH  WAREHOUSE. 
Wfyere  the  first  corner  store  was  opened. 


THE    DUTCH    COMPANIE."  131 


In  all  the  forty  years  that  the  Dutch  Company 
controlled  the  New  Netherlands,  they  had  but  four 
Director-Generals.  This  is  not  counting-  Mey  nor 
Yerhulst.  Mey  was  appointed  for  a  year  only,  and 
did  not  stay  long  after  his  colonists  were  fairly  well 
placed  in  their  new  homes.  -  Director  William 
Yerhulst,  who  followed  Mey  for  a  year,  probably 
spent  most  of  his  time  at  Fort  Nassau,  on  the  South 
River.  Neither  had  full  charge  of  the  Province. 

PETER  MINUIT,  THE   FIRST  DIRECTOR-GENERAL. 

The  first  and  best  Director  of  all  the  Company's 
colonists  and  affairs  in  New  Netherland  was  Peter 
Minuit.  He  came  in  1625,  and  remained  for  six 
years.  The  Amsterdam  Chamber  gave  him  power 
to  do  almost  anything  he  saw  fit  to  do.  He  made 
the  scattered  groups  of  rough  settlements  into  a 
wonderfully  peaceful  and  prosperous  little  state, 
carefully  fortified  against  both  the  Indians  and  the 
English. 

He  made  friends  of  both  these  neighbors.  As 
soon  as  he  heard  of  the  English  Colony  at  New 
Plymouth,  he  sent  Indian  messengers  to  them  with 
polite  letters,  written  in  Dutch  and  in  French. 
After  a  time,  he  despatched  his  Koopman,  Isaac  ; 
de  Rasieres,  to  visit  them.  But  when  the  English 
showed  their  spirit  against  the  Dutch  Colony,  the 


132  THE    COLONIES. 

resolute  Director  reported  the  matter  to  Holland 
at  once.  The  States-General  immediately  sent  out 
forty  Dutch  soldiers,  the  first  standing1  army  in 
our  colonies.  If  Minuit  had  remained  in  charge 
of  the  Colony,  you  would  have  had  a  far  different 
story  from  the  one  that  is  told  about  the  Dutch 
and  English  quarrels. 

THE  FOUNDING  OF  THE   GREATEST  OF 
AMERICAN  CITIES. 

Director  Minuit  bought  Manhattan  Island  for 
the  Company  for  sixty  guilders,  paying  about  one- 
tenth  of  a  penny  an  acre.  In  our  days  the  price 
paid  would  be  about  one  hundred  and  twenty  dol 
lars,  not  one  quarter  enough  to  buy  a  small  city 
lot  nowadays.  You  may  have  heard  that  the  price 
Minuit  paid  was  equal  to  twenty-four  dollars.  That 
is  true  ;  but  in  those  days  money  was  worth  about 
five  times  as  much  as  now. 

Minuit  set  up  the  heavy  palisades  and  log 
fort  and  began  to  build  up  the  little  capital  of 
New  Amsterdam,  which  then  had  thirty  dwellings. 
He  opened  the  first  quarry  of  "  Manhattan  stone" 
for  the  Company's  warehouse,  with  its  crow  step, 
gable  roof,  and  its  store  on  the  ground  floor.  He 
laid  out  several  large  farms,  or  "  boweries,"  in  the 
meadows  along  the  East  River,  which  were  stocked 


"THE  DUTCH  COMPANIE." 


133 


with  cattle,  sheep,  goats  and  swine,  arid^  planted 

with    fruit-trees,   with   wheat,  rye,    barley,    oats, 

beans,    flax  and  other  things  that  came  up  sur 
prisingly. 


NEW  AMSTERDAM. 
As  the  Indians  saw  it  from  the  woods  where  Wall  Street  is  now. 

There   were  two  years  in  which  some   Indians 
were  so  angry  against  the  Dutch  at  Fort  Orange 


134 


THE   COLONIES. 


that  all  the  people  but  a  garrison  were  obliged  to 
stay  at  New  Amsterdam.     That  misfortune  to  Fort 

Orange,  which  con 
fined  all  the  busi 
ness  of  the  Hudson 
to  New  Amster 
dam,  gave  the  lat 
ter  town  such  a  start 
in  all  sorts  of  in 
dustries,  especially 
in  the  shipping  of 
peltries,  that  t  h  e 
Amsterdam  Cham 
ber  decided  to  make 
it  the  capital  and 
the  port  of  the 
Province.  Even 
then  there  were 
only  three  hundred 
people  in  the  Colony. 


A  KING  OF  THE  MOHAWKS. 


HOW  MINUIT  MANAGED  THE  INDIANS. 

The  trouble  with  the  Indians  was  brought  on,  in 
spite  of  all  Minuit's  care.  He  tried  to  be  just  and 
kind  to  the  savages,  and  was  strict  about  the  Com 
pany's  laws  forbidding  them  to  sell  either  liquor  or 
fire-arms.  But  the  commissary  of  Fort  Orange 


"THE  DUTCH  COMPANIE."  135 

rashly  agreed  to  take  six  of  his  men  and  join  the 
Mohicans  who  occupied  the  river  banks  opposite 
the  fort  in  an  expedition  against  the  Mohawks.  It 
was  not  the  right  thing  to  do,  especially  on  account 
of  the  treaty ;  but  you  must  remember  it,  not  only 
because  it  started  the  growth  of  New  Amsterdam, 
but  because  it  made  a  serious  change  among  the 
Indians  of  the  Hudson  region. 

The  Mohawks  did  not  wait  to  be  attacked, 
but  fell  upon  the  commissary  in  self-  defense, 
they  said.  They  killed  him  and  three  of  his 
men,  and  made  such  a  panic  among  the  settlers 
that  all  of  them  fled  to  the  protection  of  New 
Amsterdam. 

Minuit  made  peace  as  soon  as  possible ;  but  the 
whole  settlement  at  Fort  Orange  was  deserted,  ex 
cept  by  the  garrisons  who  held  the  fort  and  the 
trading-posts.  This  lasted  about  two  years,  until 
the  Mohawks  dro've  the  Mohicans  from  the  banks 
of  the  Hudson.  They  went  to  the  Connecticut, 
and  after  nearly  ten  years  they  got  the  English 
into  similar  trouble  with  the  great  tribes  of  that 
river,  the  Pequots.  As  soon  as  .peace  was  restored, 
Minuit  sent  the  Fort  Orange  colonists  back  to  their 
farming  and  trading,  while  he  despatched  men  to 
the  Fresh  River  to  keep  the  Mohicans'  trade  and 
that  of  the  Pequots,  too. 


136  THE   COLONIES. 

HOW  THE  INDIANS  FELT  TOWARD  THE  DUTCH. 

The  Indians  liked  the  Dutch  trade.  They  were 
glad  to  have  the  glass  beads,  the  gay  clothes,  and, 
most  of  all,  the  wampum  they  brought ;  but  the 
savages  did  not  want  to  give  up  every 
thing  to  the  strangers.  Often,  too,  they 
felt  that  the  Dutch  traders  were  selfish. 
A  good  Dutch  minister,  who  tried  to 
teach  the  natives,  found  them  "uncivil 
and  stupid  as  posts."  He  could  do  more 
with  the  children,  but  the  Indians  were 
so  fond  of  their  children  that  it  was  diffi 
cult  to  keep  them  apart.  "The  par 
ents  are  never  contented, "  wrote  the 
preacher,  "but  take  them  away  stealth 
ily,  or  induce  them  to  run  away  them 
selves." 

No  more  did  the  Indians  wish  to  teach 
their  language  to  the  Dutch.  Many 
Dutchmen  tried  to  learn  the  Indian 
tongue,  difficult  as  it  was.  The  min 
ister  said:  "They  rather  design  to  con 
ceal  their  language  from  us  than  to  prop 
erly  communicate  it,  except  in  things 
which  happen  in  daily  trade.  They 
speak  only  half  their  reasons,  with  short- 
ened  words,  so  that  even  those  who  can 


"THE  DUTCH  COMPANIE."  137 

best  of  all  speak  with  the  Indians,  and  get  along  well 
in  trade,  are  wholly  in  the  dark  and  bewildered 
when  they  hear  the  Indians  speaking  with  each 
other." 

COMMERCIAL  PROSPERITY. 

You  have  read  of  the  hard  times  of  the  early 
years  of  the  other  colonies.  The  Dutch  had  some 
hardships,  but  they  raised  food  enough  and  to 
spare,  even  in  the  days  of  the  first  Director.  They 
were  scarcely  settled  before  they  began  to  enjoy 
what  grown  folks  call  commercial  prosperity. 

The  Indians  brought  in  many  peltries  of  the 
beaver,  otter,  wildcat  and  muskrat,  and  the  colo 
nists  felled  valuable  oak  and  other  timber  for  treeless 
Holland.  The  trade  of  the  little  state  was  equal  to 
nearly  thirty  thousand  dollars  a  year  in  our  money  ; 
but  it  was  not  enough  to  satisfy  the  Company. 

The  Company's  men  had  cut  more  of  the  great 
timbers  from  the  thick  forests  about  their  settle 
ments  than  the  vessels  could  carry.  So  the  colo 
nists  began  to  turn  out  goodly  vessels  of  their  own. 
They  built  the  New  Amsterdam  of  their  finest 
timber,  making  her  one  of  the  largest  merchantmen 
in  the  world — larger  than  any  vessel  ever  built  in 
the  United  Provinces. 

Within  a  few  years  the  Company  had  over  one 
hundred  vessels  and  nine  thousand  men  in  their 


138  THE    COLONIES. 

New  Netherland  trade.  Their  trade  was  extended 
boldly  in  the  West  Indies,  arid  cautiously  in  the 
English  colonies  up  and  down  the  coast.  Besides 
all  this,  Minuit  sent  traders  into  the  Narragansett 
Bay.  You  have  heard  that  the  Montauks  made 
large  quantities  of  wampum,  the  shell  money  used 
by  all  the  Indians  of  the  New  Netherland  and 
New  England  regions.  The  Dutch  opened  a  profit 
able  trade  with  the  Narragansetts  in  this  wampum. 
They  also  used  it  for  their  own  currency,  and 
sold  it  to  other  Indians. 

THE  GREAT  PATROONEBIES. 

Such  prosperity  was  almost  unheard  of  in  a  new 
colony.  Yet  some  of  the  greedy  Directors  wanted 
more.  So  they  induced  the  Assembly  of  Nineteen 
to  grant  large  tracts  of  the  Province  in  patroon- 
eries.  Every  one  in  Holland  was  soon  talking  of 
the  "Charter  of  Privileges  and  Exemptions,"  which 
the  Chamber  of  Nineteen  issued.  Stolid  Dutch 
men  as  they  were,  the  leaders  of  the  Company  were 
excited  over  it,  because  it  gave  them  the  privilege 
of  becoming  the  titled  owners  of  great  estates. 
Any  of  them  w^ould  be  acknowledged  Patroons 
of  New  Netherland  who  "should,  within  the  space 
of  four  years,  undertake  to  plant  a  colony  there  of 
fifty  souls  upwards  of  fifteen  years  old." 


"THE  DUTCH  COMPANIE."  139 

Then  there  was    much    excitement  among  the 
young  men  of  the  Low  Countries  about  going  out 
to  settle  these  patrooneries.     This  was  their  oppor 
tunity  if  they  loved  adventure,  and  if  they  wished 
to  make  their  fortunes.     The  patroon  became  ab 
solute  master  of  .as  much  as  sixteen  miles  on  any 
river,  if  he  could  buy  it  of  the  Indians  and  colo 
nize  it.    He  must  supply  his  settlers  with  a  minister 
and  a  schoolmaster.     He  was  forbidden  to  take  up 
any  industry  that  might  conflict  with  the  interests  of 
the  mother  country  ;  but  he  received   great  privi 
leges  for  other  undertakings.     He  could  trade  with 
the  Indians  on  his  own  territory,  lay  out  planta 
tions,  much  like  those  of  Virginia,  and  work  them 
with  negro  slaves   if  he    bought   them    from  the 
Company.     The  Dutch  had  a  large  trade  in  negro 

slaves. 

The  patroons  sent  out  their  factors,  overseers, 
traders,  colonists,  ministers  and  school  teachers. 
They  made  good  terms  with  men  who  would  settle 
on  their  estates.  They  gave  farhiers  as  much  land 
as  they  could  cultivate,  free  from  taxes  for  ten 
years. 

THE  SAD  STORY  OF  ZUANANDAEL. 

When  the  Assembly  of  Nineteen  announced  that 
they  would  grant  the  patrooneries,  the  first  choice 
in  the  whole  Province  was  in  the  region  of  the 


140  THE   COLONIES. 

South  Bay.  Both  shores,  including  all  of  Cape 
May  and  the  west  shore  for  some  thirty  miles 
above  Cape  Henlopen,  were  bought  from  the  In 
dians  at  once  by  agents  of  the  two  most  greedy  of 
the  Amsterdam  Chamber's  directors.* 

This  valuable  estate  was  the  patroonerie  of 
Zuanandael,  or  Swansdale,  which  means  the  valley 
of  swans.  In  the  spring  of  1630  a  colony  was  fitted 
out  by  Captain  De  Tries,  with  whom  the  greedy 
Directors  were  obliged  to  share  their  great  estates. 
The  Colony  had  a  ship  and  a  yacht,  with  cattle, 
farming-tools,  grains  and  seeds,  and  an  outfit  for 
whaling,  besides  a  goodly  supply  of  trinkets  and 
bright  cloth  to  use  in  trade  with  the  Indians.  Setting 
to  work  at  once,  this  colony  soon  made  the  settlement 
of  Oplandt,  building  log  huts  and  a  blockhouse 
for  a  port  and  trading-station.  It  was  where  the 
town  of  Lewiston  is  now,  at  the  mouth  of  a  stream 
which  was  called  by  several  names,  among  others 
the  Hoorri-Kill.  Many  meanings  are  given  to  this 
name.  Some  say  it  was  chosen  from  the  town  of 
Hoorn,  in  Holland,  which  was  the  home  of  Captain 
De  Yries. 

The  Captain  went  out  to  Zuanandael  the  next 
year  with  more  colonists  and  found  nothing  but 
the  bones  of  the  first  settlers.  The  Indians  told 

*  Samuel  Godyn  aud  Samuel  Bloemmaert. 


"THE    DUTCH    COMPANIE/7  141 

him  stories  of  how  the  poor  people  perished. 
The  officer  in  charge  of  the  Colony  had  fastened 
the  arms  of  the  States-General  to  a  pillar — a  very 
important  matter  in  the  Dutchmen's  eyes.  But  the 
Indians  saw  in  it  nothing  but  a  shining  piece  of 
metal  which  would  make  beautiful  pipes.  So  they 
took  it  down  in  great  glee,  no  doubt,  and  made 
their  pipes.  This  led  to  trouble.  The  Dutchmen 
and  the  natives  were  not  able  to  speak  the  lan 
guage  of  each  other.  They  misunderstood  what 
was  said,  and,  before  they  knew  it,  they  were  in  a 
deadly  quarrel. 

De  Tries  said  to  the  patroons  :  "We  lost  our 
settlement  in  the  Hoorn  Creek  by  mere  jangling 
with  the  Indians,  when  thirty- two  of  our  men  were 
murdered."  He  did  not  risk  leaving  his  new  col 
ony  to  the  same  fate. 

THE  PATROONEBJES  OF  THE  HUDSON. 

The  second  choice  of  patrooneries  was  made  by 
Michael  Paauw.  He  was  a  great  director  of  the 
Amsterdam  Chamber,  and  lord  or  baron  of  Ach- 
tienhoveri,  a  place  in  South  Holland.  This,  too, 
was  in  what  is  now  New  Jersey  ;  it  included  Staten 
Island  and  the  mainland  from  Sandy  Hook  to  Ho- 
boken,  along  the  banks  of  the  Hudson,  opposite 
New  Amsterdam.  This  patroon  named  his  estate 


142 


THE    COLONIES. 


Pavonia,  which  was  the  Latin  .word  for  his  own 
name  ;  in  English  it  is  peacock.  Paauw's  first 
settlers  built  log  houses  on  Paulus  Hook,  and 
started  the  village,  or  commune,  of  Paauw. 

When  you  take  the  Comrnunipaw  Ferry  from 
New  York  to  Jersey  City,  and  pass  through  the 


OLD  PAVONIA'S  NAMESAKE. 

crowded  old  streets  near  the  ferry-landing  and 
the  railroad  station,  you  may  imagine  how  things 
looked  in  the  days  of  the  little  thatched  roof  village 
of  the  old  baron  of  South  Holland. 

Farther  up  the  river,  in  the  heart  of  the  Fort 
Orange  fur-trading  country,  Kiliari  Van  Rerisse- 
laer  of  Amsterdam,  a  rich  dealer  in  precious 


"THE  DUTCH  COMPANIE."  143 

jewels,  took  up  nearly  all  of  the  land  now  in  the 
counties  of  Albany,  Rensselaer,  and  Columbia.  His 
estate  surrounded  Fort  Orange,  which  was  under 
the  control  of  the  Company  ;  and  his  first  settle 
ment  was  made  near  this  well-established  post. 
Rensselaerwyck  was  the  most  beautiful,  the  most 
fruitful  and  the  richest  trading  territory  in  the 
Province.  Yan  Rensselaer  sent  settlers  arid  traders, 
and  made  it  a  strong  and  rich  patroonerie,  while 
the  others  were  given  up  or  divided  into  small 
estates,  with  a  few  farms. 

The  patroons  soon  gave  more  attention  to  ex 
tending  their  fur-trade  than  to  planting  colonies. 
They  became  rivals  of  their  own  Company,  steal 
ing  its  trade,  and  quarreling  with  the  Amsterdam 
Chamber  most  of  the  time.  Before  long,  some  one 
raised  the  cry  that  Minuit  favored  the  patroons. 
In  fact,  he  was  doing  his  utmost  for  the  Company 
against  them  ;  but  the  Amsterdam  Chamber  would 
not  believe  it.  So  they  turned  him  out. 

WOUTER  VAN   TWILLER,  THE    SECOND   DIRECTOR- 
GENERAL. 

Wouter  (or  Walter)  Yan  Twiller  came  into  the 
harbor  in  the  fresh  springtime  of  1633.  He  landed 
with  great  flourish  of  trumpets.  He  was  a  relative 
of  Patroon  Yan  Rensselaer.  In  his  four  years' 


144 


THE    COLONIES. 


stay  he  did  more  for  the  patroons  than  for  the  Com 
pany,  but  more  for  himself  than  for  either.     The 

farms  and  the 

trade  of  the 
Company  fell 
to  a  poor  show 
ing-,  while  Van 

^Rff^T  Twiller's   own 

'Hip  fa  r  m  s    were 

%g:    m  prosperous.  So 

were  his  distil 
lery,  his  brew- 
house,  and 
many  other 
things  that  he 
started. 

He  brought 
one  hundred 
and  four  new 
soldiers  for  the 
little  standing 
army  of  the 
Province.  He 
also  brought  a 

VAN  TWILLEU-  gunboat    f  o  r 

her  navy,  with  a  Spanish    caravel  in  tow,  which 
had  been  captured  on  the  way  over. 


"THE  DUTCH  COMPANIE." 

Yan  Twiller  laid  fines  and  taxes  on  the  people 
and  ruled  them  as  a  tyrant  rules.  Although  the 
Chamber  sent  new  Counselors  with  him,  he  refused 
to  allow  them  to  meet.  When  the  colonists  ob 
jected  he  punished  them  severely,  even  hanging 
them  for  mutiny.  Among  many  other  things  he 
declared  that  almost  all  business'  paper  was  illegal 
unless  it  bore  his  signature,  and  every  time  he 
signed  his  name  he  charged  a  fee. 

THE  HARM  THAT  VAN  TWILLER  DID. 

Whenever  he  chose,  Yan  Twiller  changed  the 
value  of  wampum  so  that  neither  the  colonists  nor 
the  Indians  knew  what  their  possessions  were 
worth .  It  was  in  his  time  that  Peter  Minuit  returned 
and  planted  the  strong  and  happy  colony  of  New 
Sweden  on  the  South  River.  Yan  Twiller  blus 
tered,  but  did  nothing  else  to  prevent  these  stran 
gers  from  taking  some  of  the  fairest  country  and 
most  valuable  fur- trade  in  New  Netherland. 

Yan  Twiller  was  so  cowardly  and  so  fond  of 
eating  and  drinking  that  the  English  easily  found 
ways  to  take  advantage  of  him.  During  his  short 
term  they  drew  much  of  the  Indian  trade  away 
from  the  Dutch,  they  planted  their  towns  on  Long 
Island  and  in  the  region  of  the  Connecticut  River. 
They  also  pushed  their  way  into  the  Dutch  settle- 


146  THE    COLONIES. 

merits,  and  took  part  in  the  business  of  the  capital. 
They  soon  had  a  voice  in  the  government,  and  they 
gradually  gained  so  much  influence  that  they  pre 
pared  the  Province  to  surrender  to  an  English  pro 
prietor  after  about  twenty  years.  Some  of  them 
planted  the  first  tobacco-fields  in  New  Netherlarid. 

For  a  long  time  tobacco-raising  was  important 
work  in  the  Province.  The  Company  held  all  the 
trade,  not  only  in  tobacco,  but  in  the  negro  slaves 
imported  to  work  in  the  fields. 

Under  a  strong  Director,  the  English  would  not 
have  been  allowed  to  push  themselves  into  the 
Province  ;  but  Yan  Twiller  was  not  wholly  to 
blame.  The  Directors  were,  forbidden  to  call  out 
the  little  army  against  other  colonists  unless  the 
mother  countries  were  at  war.  The  English  had 
private  orders  from  their  king  to  "crowd  out  the 
Dutch "  wherever  they  could.  When  they  chose 
to  settle  a  town  within  the  claims  of  New  Nether- 
land,  or  to  cut  into  the  Dutchmen's  trade,  or  to  make 
trouble  of  any  sort,  the  Director  was  not  free  to 
stop  it  with  a  force  of  his  well-armed  soldiers,  but 
must  report  to  the  Amsterdam  Chamber.  The 
Amsterdam  Chamber  reported  to  the  Chamber  of 
Nineteen,  and  the  Chamber  of  Nineteen  might  ask 
their  High  Mightinesses,  the  States-General,  for 
permission  to  fire.  Usually  the  matter,  which 


"THE  DUTCH  COMPANIE."  147 

seemed  so  large  to  the  colonists  and  traders,  ap 
peared  to  be  too  small  for  the  great  merchants  to 
lay  before  the  grave  statesmen  ;  so  the  English  set 
tlers  went  on  crowding  out  the  Dutch  as  hard  as 
they  could. 

WHEN  THE  ENGLISH  FAILED  AGAINST  THE  DUTCH. 

On  the  South  Bay  the  English  did  not  succeed 
against  the  Dutch.  An  amusing  story  is  told  of 
how  a  band  of  men  from  Virginia  took  and 
lost  Fort  Nassau  before  the  Swedes  arrived. 
It  was  only  a  small  band,  and  a  party  from 
New  Amsterdam  easily  surprised  and  made  pris 
oners  of  them.  Still  they  were  English,  and  the 
Dutchmen  were  covered  with  glory  on  bringing 
them  to  New  Amsterdam.  Van  Twiller  ordered  a 
celebration  of  the  victory,  with  much  eating  arid 
drinking  and  blowing  of  horns.  Then  he  called 
for  the  captives  and  lectured  them  for  thieving 
and  trespassing.  That  done,  he  handed  them  over 
to  Captain  De  Vries,  who  took  them  "pack  and 
sack"  back  to  Virginia.  But  a  few  of  the  party 
either  stayed  or  came  back  to  the  easy-going  Dutch 
men  arid  showed  them  how  to  «;row  tobacco. 

o 

As  long  as  the  Dutch  rule  lasted,  the  English 
failed  in  every  effort  to  settle  on  the  South  River. 
They  would  have  succeeded,  no  doubt,  if  the 


148  THE    COLONIES. 

Swedes  had  not  been  there  with  soldiers  and  gun 
boats  to  drive  them  out.  The  Swedes  and  Dutch 
were  willing-  to  forget  their  own  quarrels  and  join 
forces  to  keep  the  English  away. 

ON  THE  CONNECTICUT. 

On  the  Connecticut  River  the  English  won. 
Some  say  that  the  Dutch  made  a  small  settlement 
there  with  a  few  families  of  their  first  colony.  At 
any  rate,  the  Dutchmen  had  a  valuable  trade  there, 
and,  in  1633,  Yan  Twiller  sent  Jacob  Van  Corlear, 
the  trumpeter,  to  buy  lands  of  the  Pequots,  lay  out 
some  farms  and  build  a  fort  called  the  House  of 
Hope,  where  part  of  the  city  of  Hartford  now 
stands.  Yan  Corlear  also  bought  some  land  at  the 
mouth  of  the  River  and  placed  the  arms  of  the 
States-General  on  a  large  tree. 

The  House  of  Hope  had  not  been  built  long 
when  some  Englishmen  from  the  Colony  of  New 
Plymouth  came  up  the  river  with  a  house  on  their 
boat.  The  Dutch  garrison  fired  a  few  guns  so  as 
not  to  hit  the  English  and  told  them  to  leave  the 
river.  The  English  said  they  would  not,  and  they 
did  not,  but  went  on  and  set  up  their  house  where 
the  town  of  Windsor  now  stands.  Before  long  other 
large  parties  came  from  the  Massachusetts  Bay  Col 
ony,  some  overland  and  some  sailing  up  the  river. 


THE    DUTCH    COMPANIE. 


"  141) 


One  of  them  settled  directly  opposite  the  House  of 
Hope.  The  Dutch  blustered  and  reported  the  mat 
ter  to  Holland,  but  all  in  vain.  The  English  had 
come  to  stay.  A  party  from  England  tore  down 
the  arms  of  the  States-General  at  the  mouth  of  the 
river  and  built  the  fort  and  town  of  Saybrook. 
Five  years  after  the  House  of  Hope  was  built,  these 
English  had  entire  possession  of  all  the  rest  of  the 
valley. 

There  were  quarrels  arid  sometimes  fights  among 
the  settlers  ;  but  the  crowding  out  went  on  under 
one  director  after  another.  At  length,  when  there 
were  rumors  of  war  between  the  mother  countries, 
the  colonists  had  real  fighting  ;  and,  when  peace 
was  made,  the  English  had  possession  of  the  House 
of  Hope  arid  all  the  Connecticut  River. 

GOOD  THAT  VAN  TWILLER  DID. 

The  greedy  Director  Walter  did  some  good  things 
that  the  histories  often  pass  over.  He  built  up 
New  Amsterdam  to  a  solid  little  town,  with  strong 
defenses  and  a  few  handsome  houses.  He  treated 
the  Indians  with  good  sense,  making  a  few  im 
portant  treaties,  and  he  sent  to  the  Company  for 
permission  to  use  his  soldiers  against  the  Eng 
lish,  while  he  tried  in  vain  to  keep  them  out  of 
his  province  by  bluster.  Although  angry  with 


150  THE   COLONIES.  > 

V 

them  for  the  ill  way  they  repaid  the  good-will  of 
the  Dutch,  he  was  still  full  of  kind  feelings  for 
them  when  they  were  in  danger  from  the  Indians. 
When  a  Pequot  killed  Captain  De  Wins'  friend, 
the  famous  English  trader,  Captain  Stone,  in  the 
Dutch  trading  region  on  the  Connecticut,  Van 
Twiller  promptly  had  the  murderer  punished. 
Afterwards,  in  the  Pequot  war,  when  two  English 
girls  were  captured  by  some  of  the  same  savages, 
Van  T  wilier 's  men  rescued  the  poor  young  cap 
tives  and  returned  them  to  their  people,  although 
the  savages  were  likely  to  turn  against  the  Dutch 
for  their  interference. 

He  did  little  that  was  good  to  weigh  against 
much  that  was  bad  ;  and.  at  length,  complaints  were 
so  loud  that  Van  Twiller  was  ordered  to  leave  the 
Province  in  spite  of  all  that  Patroon  Van  Rensse- 
laer  could  do  to  protect  him. 

CAPTAIN  DE  VRIES. 

Captain  De  Vries  was  in  New  Amsterdam  much 
of  the  time  during  Van  T  wilier 's  term  and  the 
next  Director's,  too.  If  he  had  not  seen  the  wicked 
Wouter's  doings,  there  is  no  telling  how  long  he 
might  have  been  allowed  to  hold  his  office.  De 
Vries  said  he  was  "  astonished  that  the  West  India 
Company  should  send  such  fools  to  the  colonies, 


THE    DUTCH    CONPANIE.  151 


who  knew  nothing  but  how  to  drink  themselves 
drunk." 

Captain  David  Pieters  (or  Pietersen)  De  Vries  was 
one  of  the  most  interesting' .men  of  all  the  Dutch  in 


CAPTAIN  DAVID  PETERSEN  DE  VRIES. 


152 


THE   COLONIES, 


America.  He  was  a  fearless  sea-captain,  who  had 
sailed  to  many  countries  in  his  day.  The  great 
West  India  Company  itself  had  once  been  put  down 
by  the  States-  General  in  an  attempt  to  overreach  this 

bold    pioneer    in    the 

SHORT    HISTORICAL  AT  w       in 

AN*  .       JNew     World     trade. 

Journal  not*  After   that,  I)e  Tries 

Of  several  Voyages  made  in  the  four  f  •       i 

parts  of  the  W?rld,  namely.  LOP!  WaS  *>  Warm  friend  to 

APRICA,  ASIA,  and  AMERICA,  />     ,  i 

B,D  some  of  the  Amster- 

DAVID    PIETERSZ.  dam    Chamber,    and 


,  fiir&s,  kinj)  of  fis^s  an5 

Saoage  ^Tlen,—  tounterfeiteb  to 

ll)c  £ife.-an6  iljt  tDoofte  anb  Bioeta 
oith  (heir  Drobnti. 


M  ur,-58!  Ordnance-Ma8tei  of  the  Most 

Noble  I/>, -da,  the  Committed  Council  of  the  Uad      a       Share      111      tllC 

States  of  West  Fnesland  and  the 

North  Quarter  patroon    privileges 

%r.eln.?t.'6lsrribtJln'llalBo«'«  He    came     to     New 

Netherland  more  than 
once.  He  had  land 
and  trade  and  colo 
nists  there.  One  of 
his  colonies  was  on 
Staten  Island,  and  an 
other  was  Yriesen- 
lancl,  up  the  Hudson, 
on  the  Tappan  Sea. 
His  rare  little  book 
of  voyages  is  considered  a  truthful  account  of  what 
he  saw  in  many  countries.  It  has  much  about 
New  Netherland,  and  some  amusing  stories  of  the 
things  the  Dutchmen  did. 


TITLE-PAGE  OP  CAPTAIN  DEVKIEs'sJo,HNAL. 


NEW    SWEDEN. 


153 


CHAPTER  Till. 

NEW  SWEDEN. 

To  plant  a  new  Sweden  in  America  was  one  of 
the  many  unfulfilled  plans   of  the  great  King  of 
Sweden     and     con 
queror    of    Europe, 
Grustavus  Adolphus, 
the    "Lion    of    the 
North."     When    he 
was  killed  in  the  bat 
tle  of  Lutzen,  in  No 
vember,  1632,  he  left 
his  throne  to  his  six- 
year  -  old   daughter, 
Christina ;     but    the 
kingdom  was  in  care 
of  the  warrior  king's 
trusted     Chancellor, 
Oxenstiern,    one    of 
the     ablest      states 
men  in  Europe. 

Not  long  after  the  news  reached  Europe  of  the 
loss  of  the  Dutch   settlement  of  Oplandt,  on  the 


154  THE   COLONIES. 

South  Bay,  Peter  Minuit  went  to  Sweden,  sore 
against  the  Dutch  West  India  Company,  because 
they  had  listened  to  complaints  of  him  while  he 
had  loyally  tried  to  protect  the  Company's  interest 
against  the  patroons. 

He  knew,  probably,  that  the  destruction  of  Op- 
landt  left  the  Bay  without  a  white  man  upon  it,  ex 
cept  at  Fort  Nassau.  He  told  the  Chancellor  that 
he  could  carry  out  the  great  king's  plan.  He  could 
lead  a  Swedish  colony  from  their  own  cold  coun 
try  to  this  mild  and  beautiful  part  of  the  New 
World.  The  Chancellor  may  have  heard  that 
Minuit  had  been  the  making  of  the  Dutch  planta 
tion  in  its  first  few  years.  In  some  way  he  was 
convinced  that  this  was  the  man  to  carry  out  the 
King's  project.  So  no  time  was  lost  in  sending 
him  forth  in  the  name  of  the  little  girl-queen, 
Christina.  This  was  the  only  colony  that  Sweden 
ever  founded.  It  was  a  remarkable  colony,  al 
though  it  had  only  seventeen  years'  separate  exist 
ence. 

THE  LANDING  OF   THE  SWEDES. 

Iii  the  Spring  of  1038,  Minuit  entered  the  South 
Bay  with  his  gunboat,  the  Key  of  Caiman,  and  a 
transport,  the  G-rijfin,  carrying  a  colony  of  Swedes 
and  Finns,  with  their  good  Lutheran  clergyman 
and  a  skillful  engineer  to  lay  out  fortifications. 


NEW   SWEDEN.  155 

They  had  a  large  supply  of  guns  arid  powder,  tools 
and  provisions  ;  likewise  many  articles  for  trade 
with  the  Indians. 

An  old  writer  says  that  they  found  the  country 
on  the  west  bank  of  the  river  so  beautiful  that  they 
could  think  of  no  more  appropriate  name  to  give 
it  than  Paradise.  This  is  now  called  Mispillion 
Point.  Governor  Minuit  probably  knew  that  this 
was  in  the  Patroonerie  of  Zuanandael,  and  looked 
farther  for  a  site  for  his  settlement.  He  sailed 
along  the  green  shores  in  the  pleasant  springtime, 
until  he  found  a  good  harbor  at  the  mouth  of  the 
Minquas  River,  which  he  named  for  Christina  ;  it 
has  been  changed  now  into  Christiana.  About  two 
miles  up  the  serpentine  course  of  this  stream, 
where  the  rocks  made  a  natural  wharf,  he  built  the 
fort  of  Christina,  with  the  town,  Christinaham,  be 
hind  it,  near  what  is  now  the  town  of  Wilmington, 
Delaware.  Soon  he  sent  his  vessels  home  for  more 
colonists.  The  men  carried  good  cargoes,  and 
such  praises  of  the  new  country  that  many  other  of 
Christina's  subjects  were  eager  to  leave  their  bleak 
homes  for  the  sunny  banks  of  the  South  Bay. 

THE  SWEDES  AND  INDIANS. 

The  Minquas  Indians  soon  came  paddling  down 
their  river  to  make  the  strangers  welcome.  For  a 

o 


156  THE    COLONIES. 

kettle  and  some  trinkets  Minuit  bought  a  large  tract 
of  land.  Other  Indians  carne  overland  with  packs 
on  their  backs,  containing  beaver  peltries,  otter  and 
deer-skins.  They  also  carried  tobacco,  maize  and 
venison.  These  they  gladly  exchanged  for  the 
clothes,  the  tools,  the  blankets  and  other  tilings 
that  Minuit  had  known  they  would  like.  They 
were  always  friendly,  as  at  first ;  and  their  trade 
was  so  large  that  the  Swedes  at  home  were  much 

O 

pleased  with  the  enterprise.  The  Dutch  declared 
that  they  lost  thirty  thousand  florins7  worth  of  trade 
within  a  year  or  so  after  the  Colony  was  planted. 

It  is  said  that  not  a  drop  of  Indian  blood  was 
shed  on  the  Delaware  Bay  or  River.  An  old  writer 
said:  "The  Indians  have  always  been  so  well 
treated  that  they  call  the  Swedes  their  own  people.7' 
Many  a  story  is  told  of  the  pains  taken  by  the 
Delaware  tribes  to  keep  harm  from  befalling  the 
Swedes. 

The  people  held  their  Church  services  in  the  fort. 
The  Indians  sometimes  attended  the  devout  wor 
ship  of  their  new  friends.  They  listened  respect 
fully  to  the  good  preacher's  speech  in  an  unknown 
tongue.  But  they  were  amazed  that  one  man 
should  detain  his  tribes  with  such  long  talks  with 
out  offering  them  anything  to  drink.  Once  some 
young  braves  showed  a  great  deal  of  anger  after 


NEW    SWEDEN.  157 

attending  a  meeting1.  It  was  found  that  they  be 
lieved  that  the  pastor,  speaking  so  long  without  in 
terruption,  must  be  calling  on  the  people  to  attack 
the  Indians. 

THE  LIFE  OF  THE  SWEDES. 

The  Swedes  were  good  traders  and  good  farmers. 
They  lived  happy,  prosperous  lives  upon  their 
flourishing  farms  along  the  river.  Their  cattle 
grazed  in  the  meadows,  the  marshes  and  the  woods  ; 
for  in  those  days  a  carpet  of  thick  grass  grew  wlure 
heavy  underbrush  now  chokes  our  forests.  The 
Swedes'  cattle  grew  into  large  herds,  from  which 
the  whole  region  is  supplied  with  common  stock 
to  this  day. 

They  ' '  planted  peaches  and  fruit-trees  of  all  kinds, 
and  had  flourishing  gardens.  They  made  wine, 
beer,  or  brandy  out  of  sassafras,  persimmons,  corn 
and  apparently  anything  that  could  be  made  to  fer 
ment.  .  .  .  They  always  indulged  in  four  meals 
a  day." 

"The  Swedes  never  attempted  to  clear  the  land 
of  trees.  They  took  the  country  as  they  found  it, 
occupied  the  meadows  and  open  land  along  the 
river,  diked  them,  cut  the  grass,  plowed  and 
sowed  and  made  no  attempt  to  penetrate  the  in 
terior."  It  was  the  English  who  chopped  down  the 


158 


THE    COLONIES. 


monarchs  of  the  primeval  forest  and  burned  off  the 
woodland  to  a  barren  waste,  or  to  be  grown  again 
with  heavy  underbrush. 

;'The  old  accounts  of  game  and  birds  along  the 
Delaware  read  like  fairy  tales.  The  first  settlers 
saw  the  meadows  covered  with  huge  flocks  of  white 
cranes,  which  rose  in  clouds  when  a  boat  ap- 


THE  SWEDES  DID  NOT  CUT  DOWN  ALL  THE  TREES. 

proached  the  shore.  The  finest  varieties  of  fish 
could  be  almost  taken  with  the  hand.  Ducks  and 
wild  geese  covered  the  water.  The  wild  swans, 
now  driven  far  to  the  south,  were  floating  on  the 
water  like  drifted  snow.  On  shore  the  Indians 
brought  in  fat  bucks  every  day,  which  they  sold 


NEW    SWEDEN.  159 

for  a  few  pipes  of  tobacco.  Turkeys,  grouse  and 
varieties  of  song-birds,  which  will  never  be  seen 
again,  were  in  the  woods  and  the  fields.  Wild 
pigeons  often  filled  the  air  like  bees.77 

THE  DUTCH  AND  THE  SWEDES. 

The  Dutch  commandant  at  Fort  Nassau  sent 
word  to  Director  Van  Twiller  at  New  Amsterdam 
that  Minuit  had  brought  the  Swedes  into  their 

o 

rich  country.  Van  Twiller  sent  a  threatening  mes 
sage  to  Minuit  about  trespassing  on  the  Dutch  ter 
ritory,  "kept  by  our  force  and  sealed  by  our  blood 
during  thy  directorship  of  the  New  Netherland." 
He  even  said  he  did  not  believe  that  Queen  Chris 
tina  had  given  Minuit  authority  to  erect  a  fortifica 
tion  on  their  coast,  or  to  undertake  any  other  thing 
to  their  prejudice.  The  Director  also  complained  to 
the  Amsterdam  Chamber. 

Minuit  paid  no  attention  to  his  bluster.  He  kept 
on  building  his  forts  and  plying  his  trade  until  he 
died — three  years  later.  The  Dutch  dared  not  hurt 
a  hair  of  his  head,  so  great  a  name  had  Grustavus 
Adolphus  left  to  the  army  arid  navy  of  Sweden. 
The  only  way  that  the  Dutch  could  hope  to  get 
even  with  the  Swedes  was  by  selling  guns  to  the 
Indians.  The  savages  were  glad  enough  to  get 


160  THE    COLONIES. 

them;  but    they    would    never    use  them  for  the 
Dutch  against  the  Swedes. 

Before  long,  parties  of  Dutchmen  and  other  set 
tlers  from  the  neighborhood  of  New  Amsterdam 
left  that  country  and  the  bad  government  of  the 
tyrant  Directors  for  the  happier  colony  of  the 
Swedes.  Minuit  bade  them  welcome,  but  forced 
them  to  make  their  own  settlement  several  miles 
away  from  Christiana.  They  laid  out  their  farms 
south  of  the  fort  and  settled  to  a  pleasanter  life 
than  they  had  ever  known  in  Xew  Xetherland. 
After  a  time,  the  two  peoples  attended  the  same 
church,  for  they  were  good  and  devout.  When 
their  children  grew  up,  the  Swedish  young  people 
fell  in  love  with  Dutch  young  people  ;  so  they 
married,  and  soon  grew  to  be  almost  like  one  race. 
But,  some  of  the  time,  the  governors  of  the  two 
provinces  were  nearly  at  war. 

HOW  NEW  SWEDEN  GREW. 

Minuit's  colony  had  one  hard  winter.  The  first 
winter  after  they  came  they  were  cold  and  hungry, 
for  supplies  ran  short.  Some  of  them  wanted  to 
go  back  to  their  old  homes ;  but  when  the  warm 
spring  days  returned,  they  said  no  more  about  it. 
All  sorts  of  supplies  soon  began  to  arrive  from 
Sweden,  besides  many  new  colonists.  Before  the 


NEW    SWEDEN.  161 

next  winter  opened,  they  had  gathered  large  har 
vests  of  their  own — enough  for  themselves  and  for 
still  another  large  company  from  the  old  country. 
Many  ship-loads  of  Swedes  came  in  the  first  few 
years,  and  when  Minuit  died  in  1641,  he  left  New 
Sweden  a  happy,  prosperous  little  state,  able  to 
defend  itself  against  the  Dutch,  and  to  drive  out 
two  English  colonies  that  came  down  to  settle  on 

o 

the  Bay.  Some  say  these  Englishmen  were  from 
Maryland ;  for  you  know  that  L'ord  Baltimore's 
palatinate  extended  from  the  Potomac  River  to 
Delaware  Bay.  Others  say  that  the  new-comers 
came  directly  from  England — a  party  for  the 
famous  Sir  Edward  Ployden's  palatinate  of  New 
Albion,  which  was  once  the  talk  of  England,  but 
never  was  heard  of  in  America.  Whoever  they  were, 
they  were  not  allowed  to  stay.  As  long  as  the 
Swedes  held  the  South  Bay,  there  was  one  place  on 
the  coast  where  the  English  met  their  match. 

"  THE  HUGE  AND  ENERGETIC  JOHN  PBJNTZ." 

After  the  wise  Governor  Minuit  died,  the  Swed- 
i*sh  colony  was  under  Peter  Hollaeridare,  until  Gov 
ernor  Priritz  arrived  in  the  spring  of  1643  to  keep 
the  little  state  in  prosperity  for  a  decade. 

John  Printz  was  a  brave,  well-educated  and  dis- 


162 


THE    COLONIES. 


A  SWEDISH  SOLDIER. 


tinguished    Swedish   officer.      He  was   one  of  the 
strongest  governors    of  the    early    colonies  ;    but 

he  had  a  high  temper. 
He  ruled  the  South  Bay 
for  the  glory  of  Queen 
Christina  with  the  will  of 
a  barbaric  prince.  As 
he  weighed  somewhat 
more  than  four  hundred 
pounds,  the  histories  usual 
ly  speak  of  him  as  ' '  the 
huge  and  energetic  John 
Printz." 

He  brought  a  large  body 
of  soldiers  and  many  mili 
tary    supplies,    besides    a 
K  ;  company  of  new  colonists. 

His  orders  were  "to  pro 
mote  all  the  industries 
then  known  to  America, 
and  to  seek  to  establish 
all  those  of  Europe." 


THE  TERROR  OF  THE  DUTCH. 

Printz  was  ordered  by  the  Swedish  government 
to  keep  both  the  English  and  the  Dutch  from  tak 
ing  any  part  of  that  large  tract  of  land  which  the 


NEW    SWEDEN.  163 

Swedes  had  bought  of  the  Indians.  More  than 
anything  else,  perhaps,  the  new  Governor  was 
commanded  by  the  Swedish  government  to  stop 
the  Dutch  at  Fort  Nassau  from  firing  on  Swedish 
vessels  passing  up  the  river.  He  not  only  stopped 
the  Dutch  firing  on  Swedish  vessels,  but  took  up 
all  the  trade,  and  made  himself  lord  of  the  whole 
Bay. 

Printz  left  part  of  his  colonists  at  Christina,  but 
took  others  with  him  to  make  a  new  settlement 
opposite  the  Dutch  Fort  Nassau.  He  planted  that 
settlement  where  the  quarantine-station  of  Phila 
delphia  is  now,  on  Tinicum  Island,  near  the  mouth 
of  the  Schuylkill.  The  fort  and  town  were  named 
New  Goteburg.  At  the  mouth  of  the  river  the 
Governor  built  Priritz  Hall  for  his  own  fortified 
mansion.  There  were  few  finer  houses  in  the  coun 
try  at  that  time.  These  were  the  first  settlements 
on  any  of  the  broad  area  now  occupied  by  Phila 
delphia.  They  completely  cut  off  the  Dutch  from 
their  valuable  trade  with  the  Minquas,  who  brought 
loads  of  furs  down  the  Schuylkill.  Without  that, 
the  Dutch  said,  all  the  trade  of  the  South  River 
was  of  small  account. 

Andreas  Hudde,  who  was  in  command  of  Fort 
Nassau,  promptly  built  a  blockhouse,  called  Fort 
Beversrede,  as  near  the  Schuylkill  as  he  could 


104  THE    COLONIES. 

place  it.  The  Swedes  cut  down  the  fruit-trees  he 
planted  about  it,  and  built  a  house  of  their  own 
directly  in  front  of  it.  Hudde  sent  letters  to 
Printz,  and  politely  did  his  utmost  to  induce  the 
Swedish  Governor  to  consider  the  rights  of  the 
Dutch  ;  but  Printz  was  not  disposed  to  consider 
anything  but  a  valuable  trade  for  New  Sweden. 
As  for  politeness,  he  threw  Hudde 's  letters  on  the 
ground,  and  turned  his  huge  back  upon  the 
messengers.  All  this  and  more  the  Dutch  endured, 
partly  because  Director  Van  Twiller  was  not  ener 
getic,  except  for  .  himself,  and  partly  because 
the  West  India  Company  was  bound  by  its  charter 
not  to  do  anything  warlike  toward  the  people  of  a 
country  with  which  Holland  was  at  peace. 

MOSQUITO    FORT    AND    CASIMIR. 

On  the  Dutchmen's  own  side  of  the  Bay,  Printz 
bought  from  the  natives  a  tract  of  land  of  what  is 
now  New  Jersey.  There  he  built  another  fort,  at 
the  mouth  of  Salem  Creek,  about  midway  between 
Fort  Nassau  and  the  end  of  Cape  May.  It  was 
called  Elfsborg,  or  Elsinborough. 

The  Dutchmen  soon  knew  of  Elfsborg  to  their 
cost.  Boom!  went  its  guns  when  Captain  De 
Vries  sailed  into  the  Bay,  soon  after  the  fort  was 
built.  The  great  Captain  was  forced  to  strike  his 


NEW    SWEDEN. 


105 


flag  as  he  went  in  and  to  pay  a  toll  on  his  trade 
before  he  left  the  Bay.  So  was  every  Dutch  trader 
obliged  to  acknowledge  the  power  of  New  Sweden 
for  eight  years — until  New  Amsterdam  also  had 
an  energetic  Director-General  in  Peter  Stuyvesant. 
Stuyvesant,  in  1647,  took  some  gunboats  to  the 
South  Bay.  He  found  a  way  to  make  the  Swedes 
keep  their  distance.  He  bought  a  tract  of  the 
Indians,  lying  just  below  Fort  Christina  ;  and  there, 
on  a  bold  and  beautiful  bluff,  better  for  a  fortress 
than  the  sites  of  any  of  the  Swedish  posts,  "  Head 
strong  Peter  "  built  Fort  Casimir,  the  beginning 
of  the  town  of  New  Castle. 

Then  it  was  Printz's  turn  to  protest ;  but  he  had 
his  match  in  "  Old  Silverleg."  He  was  obliged  to 
withdraw  his  garrison  from 
Elfsborg,  leaving  it  to  the  over- 
plentiful  mosquitoes  ;  from  which 
the  Dutch  sarcastically  called  it 
Myggenborg,  which  means  Mos 
quito  Fort. 

After  Fort  Casimir  was  built 
Printz  saw  that  his  day  of  mono 
poly  was  over.  Both  he  and  Stuy 
vesant  agreed  to  "keep  neighbor- 
ly  friendship  and  correspondence 
together,  and  act  as  friends  and 


A  DUTCH  FARMER'S 
WIFE. 


1GG  THE   COLONIES. 

allies/'  against  any  English  who  might  wish  to 
settle  on  the  Bay.  About  four  hundred  colonists 
of  both  nations  built  their  comfortable  dwellings 
and  extended  their  fruitful  farms  upon  the  pleas 
ant  bay  and  river,  while  they  shared  the  trade  in 
furs  and  in  Virginia  tobacco.  With  a  few  slight 
interruptions,  they  lived  the  happy  lives  that  make 
no  records. 

THE   CONQUEST   OF   NEW   SWEDEN. 

Printz  returned  to  Sweden  in  1653,  and  John 
Rysingh  came  out  to  take  his  place,  bringing  about 
three  hundred  men  to  add  to  the  little  standing 
army  of  New  Sweden.  But  he  had  express  orders 
not  to  break  the  peace  with  the  Dutch. 

If  Rysingh  had  obeyed  his  orders,  New  Sweden 
might  have  grown  to  be  a  large  and  powerful 
colony.  But  the  first  thing  he  did  was  to  land  at 
Fort  Casirnir,  and  take  it  right  out  of  the  Dutch 
men's  hands.  They  had  no  powder  to  defend  them 
selves.  He  marched  the  garrison  out  at  the  point 
of  his  soldiers'  swords,  called  it  Trinity  Fort,  and 
declared  it  the  key  of  New  Sweden.  All  the  Dutch 
were  forced  to  take  the  oath  of  allegiance  to  Queen 
Christina  or  to  leave  the  country. 

That  was  in  May,  1654.  Rysingh  only  enjoyed 
his  conquest  while  Stuyvesant  was  obtaining  his 


NEW    SWEDEN. 


167 


orders  from  the  Amsterdam  Chamber,  and  making 
his  way  to  the  South  Bay  with  a  man-of-war  from 
Holland  and  a  little  fleet  and  army  of  volunteers 
from  New  Netherland.  But  in  the  days  of  ^low- 
sailing  vessels  about  a  year  and  a  half  passed  be 
fore  the  old  soldier  laid  his  siege  and  forced  the 
Swedes  to  "evacuate  the  fort  with  all  the  honors 
of  war."  Stuyvesant  wrote  to  New  Amsterdam, 
"Our  troops  with  flying  colors  marched  into  the 
fort." 

Two-thirds  of  the  Swedish  garrison  promptly 
took  the  oath  to  "  the  high  and  mighty  lords  .  .  . 
of  New  Netherland,"  and  remained  as  "  Freemen 
on  South  River."  The  Dutch  minister  who  went 
as  chaplain  to  this  small  conquering  army  preached 
a  sermon  "  with  our  imperfect  thanksgivings." 

Then  the  resolute  Stuyvesant  moved  on  Christina. 
His  men  threw  up  earthworks  on  the  land  side  of  the 
fort  and  town,  planted  batteries,  and  helped  them 
selves  to  everything  the  poor,  frightened  farmers 
possessed.  For  twelve  days  the  sorrowful  siege 
lasted  before  Rysingh  surrendered.  Then  his  sol 
diers  were  allowed  to  march  out  of  the  fort  "with 
beating  of  drums,  fifes,  and  flying  colors,  .  .  . 
and  with  their  hand-  and  side-arms."  Those  who 
chose  to  pledge  their  loyalty  to  the  Dutch  Com 
pany  were  free  to  stay  ;  those  who  did  not  were 


168  THE    COLONIES. 

allowed  to  take  their  property  to  Sweden.     That 
was  the  end  of  New  Sweden,  in  September,  1655. 

DUTCH  DOMINION  ON  THE  SOUTH  BAY. 

Under  the  Dutch  the  South  Bay  settlements  were 
divided   into  two  colonies.     Fort  Casimir  and  the 


A  STREET  IN  AMSTERDAM. 
The  City  which  once  owned  part  of  the  South  Bay. 

settlers  near  it  were  made  over  to  the  city  of  Am 
sterdam,  in  payment  for  money  the  Company  had 
received  from  the  burgomasters  of  that  city.  So 


NEW    SWEDEN 


169 


this  region  was  called  the  Colony  of  the  City,  and 
afterwards  New  Amstel,  from  a  suburb  of  Arnster- 


WEEPER'S  TOWER,  AMSTERDAM. 

Crowd  of  people  watching  their  friends  depart  for  the  South  Bay  Colonies 
of  New  Netherland. 

dam.     The  same  name  was  given  to  the  fort,  and 
Stuyvesant's  Casimir  was  soon  forgotten. 

The  rest  of  the  settlements  and  territory  of  the 


170  THE    COLONIES. 

Bay  and  River  were  the  Colony  of  the  Company. 
The  fort  and  town  which  had  been  named  for  the 
girl-queen  of  Sweden  were  changed  to  Altona. 

The  Dutch  laid  vast  plans  for  their  new  colonies, 
where  the  Swedes  had  prospered  more  than  al 
most  any  settlers  along  the  entire  coast.  But  their 
plans  were  not  carried  out.  New  colonists  were 
sent  out,  but  they  were  not  provided  for  as  the 
.great  Chancellor  Oxenstern  had  provided  for  his 
people.  They  suffered  from  hunger  and  sickness, 
which  made  them  unhappy  and  mutinous,  till  most 
of  them  ran  away  to  Maryland,  Virginia,  or  any 
where  that  they  could  find  shelter.  The  city 
fathers  of  Amsterdam  offered  to  return  their  grant 
to  the  Company  ;  but  no  one  wanted  it,  since  it 
had  gained  "  such  a  bad  name  that  the  whole  river 
would  not  wasli  it  out." 

The  English  from  Maryland  laid  their  claim  to 
this  region  before  long.  "Headstrong  Peter" 
had  nothing  but  trouble  from  his  conquest  for 
almost  ten  years,  till  the  English  officer  of  the 
Duke  of  York  took  it  out  of  his  hands  in  1664. 

THE  ENGLISH  CONCITJEST  OF  SOUTH  BAY. 

Sir  Robert  Carr  was  the  English  officer  who  de 
manded  the  surrender  of  the  South  Bay  Settlements 
to  the  Duke  of  York.  He  brought  his  frigates  up 


NEW    SWEDEN. 


171 


to  New  Amstel,  and  ordered  the  Dutch  to  give  him 
the  keys.  But  the  brave  Dutch  commander,  Hinno- 
yossa,  refused,  although  he  had  a  weak  garrison 
of  less  than  fifty  men.  Of  course  he  could  not 
hold  out  long,  for  the  English  began  to  fire  at 
once.  Perhaps  the  officers  who  gave  up  New 
Amsterdam  without  resistance  were  wiser  than 
Hinnoyossa,  if  not  so  brave,  as  he  ;  for  the  English 
took  New  Amstel  by  almost  destroying  it. 

They  then  fell  upon  the  villages  like  wolves, 
taking  anything  .they  wanted,  making  prisoners  of 
the  Dutch  and  Swedes,  and  selling  them  as  slaves 
in  Virginia.  Sir  Robert  Carr  took  one  of  the  best 

o 

farms  ;  others  he  gave  to  his  son  and  to  the  officers 
under  him.  He  declared  himself  Governor  of  the 
whole  region,  which  he  said  was  the  Province  of 
Delaware,  independent  of  New  York. 

When  Governor  Nicholls  heard  of  all  this,  he 
went  down  to  the  Bay  and  made  Carr  give  up 
part  of  his  plunder  and  repair,  as  far  as  possible, 
the  wrongs  he  had  done.  The  settlers  were  told 
that  they  were  under  the  government  of  New 
York.  Yet  Carr  was  left  in  charge  for  a  time,  and 
his  son  was  made  commander  of  the  garrison  at 
the  fort,  which  was  given  its  third  name  in  New 
Castle. 

So,  in  thirty  years,  the  region  of  the  South  Bay 


172  THE   COLONIES. 

belonged  in  turn  to  three  different  nations.  In 
later  years  it  was  a  part  of  Pennsylvania  for  a 
time  ;  but  afterwards  it  became  a  separate  colony 
again.  It  was  always  at  peace  with  the  Indians, 
even  when  the  other  colonies  were  at  war. 


THE    LIFE    OF    THE    DUTCH    COLONISTS.  173 


OHAPTEE  IX. 

THE  LIFE  OP  THE  DUTCH  COLONISTS. 

Now  we  will  go  back  to  the  capital  of  the  Dutch 
Colony,  which  we  left  when  Captain  De  Yries  was 


OLD  DUTCH  CANAL,  IN  WHAT  is  NOW  BROAD  STREET. 

trying  to  have  a  good  Director  sent  over  in  place 
of  Yan  T wilier. 

Year  by  year  New  Amsterdam  grew  into  a 
pretty  country  village,  with  gabled  houses  around 
the  little  fort.  The  West  India  Company's  gar- 


174 


THE    COLONIES. 


dens  were  on  a  hill  which  rose  quite  abruptly  from 
the  Hudson,  and  fruitful  farms  lay  along  the  East 
River.  These  were  well  stocked  with  sheep  and 
goats  and  cattle.  One  solid  stone  storehouse  after 
another  was  put  up,  and  the  houses  increased  so 

that  there 
w  e  r  e  several 
streets.  The 
good  Dutch 
men  s  o  o  n 
opened  canals 
up  some  of 
these  streets, 
so  that  the  ves 
sels  could  load 
their  peltries 
and  lumber  di 
rectly  from  the 
storehouses,  as  they  did  at  home  in  Amsterdam. 
Windmills  for  sawing  wood  were  set  up  in  several 
places.  The  fort  was  rebuilt,  and  a  church  was 
placed  within  its  shelter,  besides  a  mansion  for 
the  Director  and  barracks  for  the  soldiers. 

In  1653,  when  war  broke  out  between  Holland 
and  England,  a  high  log  palisade  was  built  across 
the  island  where  Wall  Street  is  now.  There  were 
two  blockhouses  to  guard  the  gates  on  the  prin- 


GOVERNOR'S  HOUSE  AND  CHURCH  WITHIN  THE  FORT. 


THE    LIFE    OF    THE    DUTCH    COLONISTS. 


175 


cipal  roads  leading  from  the  settlement  to  the  wild 
and  open  country.  One  of  these  roads  was  after 
wards  called  Broadway  ;  the  other  was  known  as 
the  Bowery,  because  it  lay.  through  the  Company's 
farms  or  boueries.  The  boueries  were  then  below 
the  palisade,  lying  with  pleasant  meadows  of  rich 
pasture  above  the  tiny  town.  While  this  wall 
was  a  guard  against  possible  attacks  from  the 
English  and 
from  Indians, 
it  was  a  use- 
ful  barrier, 
too,  against 
bears  and 
wolves. There 
were  a  great 
in  any  wild 
animals  o  n 
the  island 
which  the 
Dutchm  en 
loved  to  hunt; 
but  they  did  not  want  them  to  visit  the  settlement 
without  invitation. 

Breuckelyn  grew,  too,  and  Pavonia  and  Fort 
Orange.  Other  towns  were  planted,  some  on  Staten 
Island  and  Long  Island,  some  on  Manhattan  Island, 


THE  EAST  RIVER  GATE  AND  BLOCKHOUSE  IN  THE  WALL 
OF  NEW  AMSTERDAM. 


176  THE    COLONIES. 

several  miles  from  the  capital,  and  others  farther 
up  the  Hudson. 

EARLY  CUSTOMS  OF  NEW  NETHERLAND. 

More  colonists  came  from  almost  every  country 
of  Europe.  When  a  number  of  families  came  to 
gether,  they  often  started  a  settlement  of  their 
own  ;  but  some  of  all  these  different  peoples  usu 
ally  stayed  in  New  Amsterdam.  So  the  Dutch 
capital  soon  became  a  queer  little  town,  unlike  any 
other  place  in  the  world. 

The  houses  were  small  and  very  plain  at  first. 
The  Dutch  and  French  and  Walloon  housewives 
scoured  their  plain  board  floors  and  simple  fur 
niture  to  snow-whiteness.  They  were  proud  of 
their  cooking  and  spinning  and  of  their  fine  needle 
work  on  their  supplies  of  linen,  which  were  very 
large,  for  the  family  washing  was  held  only  once 
in  three  or  six  months. 

One  of  the  customs  of  the  old  New  Nether- 
landers  was  the  festival  of  St.  Nicholas,  with  pres 
ents  and  surprises  for  the  children  on  Christmas 
eve. 

When  the  colonists  grew  more  prosperous,  they 
built  large  brick  and  stone  houses  in  place  of  their 
small  wooden  dwellings.  Then  their  goodwives 
hired  maids  to  do  the  baking  in  the  great  Dutch 


THE    LIFE    OF    THE    PtFTCH    COLONISTS. 


177 


ovens,  to  polish  the  heavy  pieces  of  silver,  to  take 
care  of  the  linen,  which  increased  and  grew  finer  as 
the  family  prospered,  and  to  scour  the  unpainted 
boards  of  the  dairy  and  the  roomy  kitchens.  Rich 
or  poor,  the  young  girls  were  taught  all  kinds  of 
good  housekeeping.  They  were  often  very  young 


fe^^ 

OLD  SILVER  OF  AN  EARLY  DUTCH  FAMILY. 

when  they  married  and  went  to   homes  of  their 


The  men  worked  hard  in  their  slow  way,  and 
spent  their  leisure  at  home  with  their  friends  be 
fore  the  great  open  fireplaces  in  winter  and  on  the 
quaint  little  porches  in  summer,  smoking  their 
pipes  and  drinking  their  favorite  drinks.  There 


1  I  O  THE    COLONIES. 

was  always  a  great  deal  of  eating  and  drinking 
and  smoking  among  the  New  Netherlander.  The 
good  wives  made  many  famous  dinner  dishes,  many 
puddings  and  *  cakes,  and  no  end  of  good  tilings  for 
their  holiday  feasts. 

"WILLIAM    THE    TESTY." 

With  all  his  influence,  Captain  l)e  Vries  could 
not  secure  a  good  Director  for  the  Colony.  Van 
Twiller's  place  was  taken  by  William  Kieft,  who 
came  to  New  Netherland  in  1637  to  stay  for  ten 
years,  and  to  do  much  worse  than  Yan  T wilier  did. 
'William  the  Testy'7  Kieft  was  called,  on  account' 
of  his  ill-temper. 

It  would  be  hard  to  tell  you  all  the  shockingly 
bad  things  he  did,  injuring  the  Company  on  one 
hand  and  the  colonists  on  the  other.  His  dealings 
with  the  Indians  brought  on  a  war  that  was  the 
ruin  of  almost  all  the  Dutch  trade  and  settlements 
in  North  America.  Although  he  had  to  alter  or 
actually  break  the  laws  of  the  Company  to  do  so, 
he  allowed  a  plentiful  sale  of  liquor  and  of  guns 
among  the  red  men.  The  Indian  was  then,  as 
now,  a  dead-shot  with  any  weapon.  In  liquor  he 
was  more  like  a  furious  animal  than  a  man.  Be 
sides  allowing  the  savages  to  drink  and  to  have 
guns,  Kieft  did  everything  that  would  naturally 


THE    LIFE    OF    THE    DUTCH    COLONISTS.  170 

make  them  angry  with  the  Dutch.  In  the  affairs 
of  trade  and  in  making  settlements,  he  always 
tried  to  get  the  better  of  them.  Worse  still,  he 
outraged  their  rights  by  coolly  taking  possession 
of  any  of  their  lands  that  he  happened  to  want. 
He  even  demanded  tribute  from  them  "  in  maize, 


RUINS  OF  AN  OLD  DUTCH  HOUSE  ON  STATEN  ISLAND. 

furs  and  service,  on  the  plea  that  the  Dutch  had 
defended  them  against  their  enemies." 

After  a  few  years  of  such  bad  usage,  a  party  of 
Raritans  destroyed  the  Staten  Island  settlements. 
That  was  a  heavy  loss  to  De  Vries,  who  tried  to 
induce  Kieft  to  change  his  ways.  Before  the  Rari- 
tan  sachems  had  time  to  make  amends  for  the 
rash  outbreak  of  some  of  their  young  men,  Kieft 
took  wholesale  punishment  into  his  own  hands. 


180  THE    COLONIES. 

The  Raritans  and  their  allies  soon  saw  that  they 
must  turn  with  all  their  strength  against  the 
Dutch,  or  be  destroyed  themselves.  They  broke 
up  all  the  settlements  where  Jersey  City  and  Ho- 
boken  now  stand. 

THE    COUNCIL    OF    TWELVE. 

Then  the  patroons  and  heads  of  families  in  the 
Province  made  up  their  minds  that  the  Director 
should  have  his  own  way  no  longer.  They  held  a 
public  meeting  and  appointed  a  council  of  Twelve, 
with  Captain  De  Vriesat  their  head,  to  make  peace 
as  quickly  as  possible.  De  Vries  was  always  the 
Indians'  wise  and  gentle  friend.  They  knew  it 
and  trusted  him.  Kieft  submitted  sullenly.  The 
peace  was  made,  the  settlers  went  back  to  the  ruins 
of  their  homes  on  the  west  bank  of  the  Hudson, 
and  trade  be^ari  to  flourish  a£'ain. 

o  o 

Kieft  dismissed  the  Council  as  soon  as  he  could, 
and  announced  that  if  the  men  of  New  Nether- 
land  held  any  more  public  meetings  they  would 
be  punished  for  it.  Then  he  went  on  in  his  old 
way  with  the  Indians. 

KIEFT'S    TREACHERY. 

Within  a  year  or  so,  the  natives  broke  out  again 
across  the  river.  The  settlers,  in  a  panic,  again 
fled  to  the  port  of  New  Amsterdam  ;  and  the  Prov- 


THE    LIFE    OF    THE    DUTCH    COLONISTS. 


181 


ince  was  in  terror.  This  time  the  trouble  was 
made  by  the  son  of  a  River  chief.  His  tribe  offered 
to  make  amends.  The  Mohawks  were  on  the 
verge  of  a  war  with  them,  and  they  wanted  the 
white  men's  help. 
With  all  the  other 
tribes  about  the 
month  of  the  Hud 
son,  they  assembled 
near  the  Haekensack 
River,  back  of  Pa- 
vonia,  and  sent  mes 
sengers  to  the  Dutch 
to  forgive  them  and 

o 

make    a    treaty    of 
peace. 

De  Tries  and  all 
the  best  men  of  the 
Province  saw  that  it 
was  a  fortunate  op 
portunity  to  heal  all 
the  bad  wounds. 
But  Kieft  hired  a  pack  of  free-booters  from  some 
privateer  in  the  harbor  to  go  with  a  body  of  his 
own  soldiers  and  surprise  the  red  men  who  had 
begged  for  peace  and  kill  them  in  their  sleep. 
It  was  a  horrible  massacre. 


A  KING  OF  THE  RIVER  TRIBES. 


182  THE   COLONIES. 

The  Indians  who  escaped  did  not  wait  for  morn 
ing  to  fall  upon  the  Pavonia  settlements.  All  the 
fair  boueries  and  all  the  buildings  of  Pavonia, 

o 

Ahasimus,  and  Hoboken  were  laid  waste  in  a  few 
hours,  till  only  the  walls  of  Kieft's  brew-house  were 
left  for  a  land  mark.  Some  of  the  settlers  of  Pavonia 
were  killed  in  their  burning  houses.  Others  put 
off  quickly  in  their  boats,  and  found  refuge  in  the 
large  stone  and  brick  fort  which  had  been  built 
in  place  of  the  log  blockhouse  at  New  Amster 
dam. 

The  outraged  savages  in  their  ang-er  sought  the 

~  C1  O  O 

aid  of  all  the  tribes  of  their  race.  Kieft's  deed 
was  so  black  that  they  forgot  their  quarrels  with 
each  other,  in  order  to  retaliate  upon  the  Dutch. 

A    GREAT    INDIAN    WAR. 

Every  Algonkin  who  had  ever  heard  the  name 
of  Kieft  burned  with  hatred  for  him  and  his  mur 
derers.  A  league  was  formed  of  the  River  tribes 
and  others  who  lived  on  the  shores  of  the  harbor 
and  on  Long  Island.  The  South  River  settlers 
alone  were  not  disturbed.  The  natives  of  that 
region  were  under  the  good  influence  of  the 
Swedes,  and  had  had  little  to  do  with  either  the 
Dutch  or  the  River  Indians.  A  few  weak  tribes 


183 


184  THE  COLONIES. 

about  the  Hudson  remained  friendly.  Those  about 
Rerisselaerwyck  joined  the  war.  ]}ut  the  forts  of 
that  great  patroorierie  were  able  to  protect  their 
settlers.  All  the  other  plantations  were  wasted. 
Most  of  them  were  utterly  ruined.  Even  New 
Amsterdam  was  in  serious  danger. 

Yet  Kieft  would  hear  neither  warning  nor  pray 
ers.  He  ordered  about  his  little  garrison  as  if  he 
thought  his  two  hundred  Dutch  soldiers  could  re 
duce  ten  times  as  many  savages,  while  he  took  his 
ease.  He  ordered  them  so  badly  that  they  some 
times  destroyed  villages  of  the  friendly  tribes,  few 
as  they  were  ;  they  killed  parties  of  men,  women 
and  children,  who  were  flying  from  their  own  race 
to  the  protection  of  the  Dutch  capital. 

The  colonists  were  angry  at  the  stubborn  Direc 
tor  who  placed  them  in  this  terrible  danger.  They 
began  to  talk  of  arresting  Kieft  and  sending  him 
to  Amsterdam.  They  would  have  done  so,  no 
doubt,  if  a  message  had  not  come  from  the  Long 
Island  tribes  offering  to  make  peace. 

Kieft  was  forced  to  stop  the  war  and  agree  to 
a  general  truce.  One  after  another  all  the  tribes 
joined  it ;  but  the  River  tribes  did  so  merely  to  se 
cure  time  to  prepare  for  a  greater  war,  which 
they  planned  to  rid  the  country  of  every  Dutch 
settlement. 


185 


18G 


THE   COLONIES. 


THE    COUNCIL    OF    EIGHT. 

Kieft  was  frightened  at  last,  when  De  Tries 
started  for  Holland  to  tell  what  had  been  done  in 
the  Province.  To  curry  favor  with  the  people, 
Kieft  called  for  another  Council.  He  asked  them 
"to  elect  five  or  six  persons  from  among-  them- 


THE  DUTCH,  UNDER  THE  ENGLISH  CAPTAIN  UNDERBILL,  ROUTING  THR  INDIANS 

NEAR  STAMFORD,  CONNECTICUT,  AND  BREAKING  UP  THE  WAR 

AGAINST  KIEFT.    FEBRUARY,  1643. 

selves7'  to  consider  the  situation.  They  elected 
eight,  who  promptly  voted  for  peace  with  the 
Long  Island  tribes,  and  for  war  with  the  River  In 
dians. 

But  the   River  tribes  themselves  reopened  the 
war,  taking  the   colonists  by  surprise.     The  out- 


THE    LIFE    OF    THE    DUTCH    COLONISTS.  187 

lying  settlers,  who  had  ventured  back  to  their 
farms,  came  flying*  in  terror  to  Fort  Amsterdam. 
The  Indians  swept  the  country,  closing  in  about 
the  capital.  The  people  on  Manhattan  gathered 
into  the  fort,  and  even  there  an  officer  relieving 

c7> 

guard  was  shot  in  the  arm. 

Kieft  frantically  appealed  for  help  right  and  left, 
even  to  their  unfriendly  neighbors  in  New  Eng 
land.  Captain  Underbill,  from  Connecticut,  led  a 
force  of  Dutchmen  who  won  the  first  victory 
against  the  angry  horde  of  savages.  Further  as 
sistance  came  in  the  ^  nick  of  time  with  one  hun 
dred  and  thirty  Dutch  soldiers  from  Peter  Stuy- 
vesant,  Director  of  the  Company's  province  on  the 
West  India  Island  of  Curacoa.  Peace  was  re 
stored,  and  no  such  serious  troubles  ever  broke 
out  again.  Kieft  was  ordered  to  go  to  Holland  to 
explain  his  conduct,  and  Stuyvesant  was  appointed 
to  his  place. 

THE  MINISINK  SETTLERS. 

Have  you  ever  heard  of  the  quaint  little  Mini- 
sink  settlements  ?  They  may  have  been  made  at 
the  time  of  KiefVs  bad  rule  in  New  Netherland. 
No  one  knows  when  they  were  made  ;  but  many 
years  after  this  time  they  were  found  in  a  happy, 
prosperous  state  on  Minisink  Island,  in  the  upper 


ss 


T1IK   COLONIES, 


waters  of  the  South  River,  and    upon  the  hanks  of 
the    river  for   several   miles   in   the  goodly  mining 

«/ 

and    farming    region  where    now    New  York,   New 
Jersey,  :in<l    Pennsylvania  come  together.     Perhaps 


l.'ii'.i.Min    I'i'icii    ('lll'KCH    (iK  Til  1C    MlNISINKH. 


their  settlements  were  made  h\r  families  who  were 
dissatisfied  with  the  wav  Kid't   managed  affairs  in 

New     Nethci'lniid.      The\'     m;i\'     have     heen    some 
favored  Pavoniu  settlers.      For  a  deht  of  gratitude, 


TIIK   UFH  OF  TIIH   DUTCH  COLONISTS.         IS!) 

the  Indians  may  have  warned  them  of  the  mas 
sacre,  and  led  them  to  a  place  of  safety  by  the 
famous  old  trail  which  struck  through  the  wilder 
ness  across  the  New  Jersey .peninsula  hack  of  Pa- 
vonia.  Or,  the  Minisink  families  nisiy  have  come 
direct  from  Holland,  making  their  way  unseen  up 
the  South  Bay,  past  the  Swedish  forts  and  the 
Dutch  fort  and  alono-  the  River,  till  they  thought 
themselves  out  of  reach  of  both, 

At  any  rate,  they  planted  on  Minisink  Island  in 
a,  <roo<l  situation  for  defense,  with  their  Little  log 
church,  their  farms  and  shops  {'or  all  such  work  aS 
they  needed.  It  is  believed  that  they  arranged 

everything  to  support  themselves  without  leaving 

home,    because,    if  they   sent    trading-vessels   back 
and  forth,  their  hiding-place  would  be  known. 

PETER   STUYVESANT,    FOURTH    AND    LAST 
DIRECTOR  -  GENERAL. 

Peter  Stuyvesant  came  in  1017,  with  more  sol 
diers  and  more  colonists.  Ee  governed  the  Prov 
ince  lor  seventeen  years,  till  the  Kn^lish  took  it 
from  him.  1  le  was  a  brave  man  and  a  good  sol 
dier,  but  many  of  the  colonists  did  not  like  him. 
He  had  lost  a,  le^  in  war,  but  the  people  some 
times  forgot  that  it  was  an  honorable  mislor- 
tune,  and  disrespectfully  called  him  "  Old  Silv 


er- 


190  THE    COLONIES. 

lcg,'?  because  he  wore  a  wooden  leg  striped  about 
with  silver. 

Both  the  colonists  and  the  Company  had  cause  to 
be  glad  that  Stuyvesant  was  a  military  man.  He 
soon  showed  friends  and  foes  that  the  Dutch  Prov 
ince  had  a  Director  at  last  who  knew  how  to  take 
care  of  it.  He  defied  the  New  Englanders  on 
Long  Island  and  the  Connecticut  River,  arid  he 
stopped  the  Swedes  from  forcing  the  Dutch  to 
strike  their  flag  when  they  entered  the  South  Bay, 
as  you  have  read  in  the  chapter  on  New  Sweden. 
He  knew  how  to  stand  on  the  rights  of  his  people 
without  breaking  the  Company's  rules,  and  to  send 
accounts  of  the  actions  of  the  other  colonies  that 
soon  brought  permission  to  defend  New  Nether- 
land  with  powder  and  ball,  if  necessary. 

STEALING  PEACHES. 

With  the  Indians,  too,  this  resolute  Director  was 
a  good  friend  in  peace  and  a  dreaded  enemy  in 
war.  His  trouble  was  chiefly  with  the  restless 
tribes  some  distance  up  the  Hudson,  in  the  neigh 
borhood  of  what  is  now  the  old  town  of  Esopus. 
They  were  very  troublesome. 

There  was  only  one  serious  Indian  outbreak  in 
Stuyvesant's  time.  That  happened  while  he  was 


THE    LIFE    OF    THE    DUTCH    COLONISTS.  LIU 

at  the  South  Bay,  on  the  eonquest  of  Few  Sweden. 
Hendrick  Van  Dyck,  an  important  man  in  New 
Amsterdam,  killed  a  squaw  of  one  of  the  River 
tribes  for  stealing  his  peaches.  Instantly  all  her 
tribe  fell  upon  the  settlements  from  Hoboken  to 
Sta ten  Island,  and  even  threatened  New  Amster 
dam.  This  was  in  September,  1655 — the  same 
month  and  year,  you  remember,  in  which  New 
Sweden  was  conquered. 

As  soon  as  the  Director  returned,  he  made 
peace.  This  was  the  third  time  that  all  the  vil 
lages  on  the  western  shore  of  the  Hudson  had  been 
burned  to  ashes  ;  and  the  stern  Director  would  not 
allow  them  to  be  rebuilt-  again  until  the  owners 
agreed  to  use  brick  or  stone,  with  substantial  roofs, 
instead  of  thatch.  So  this  outbreak  over  Van 
Dyck's  peaches  led  to  the  building  of  the  first  well- 
planned  and  permanent  houses  where  Jersey  City 
now  lies.  The  first  town  built  under  this  law  was 
called  the  "Maize  Land."  Afterwards  the  name 
was  changed  to  Bergen. 

Maize  Land  was  laid  out  by  the  engineer  of  the 
Province.  Others  like  it  were  built  soon  after 
wards,  and  many  were  planned.  You  can  imagine 
how  the  fertile  forest-grown  banks  of  the  Hudson 
and  the  rugged  highlands  above  would  have 
looked,  dotted  with  these  little  towns,  as  they 


192 


THE    COLONIES. 


crossing 
angles 


would    have    been  if  the    Dutch  rule  had  lasted 
many  years  longer. 

The  town  was  a  square,  about  the  size  of  one  of 
our  large  city  blocks.  A  high  log  palisade,  with 
heavy  gates,  was  built  around  it,  on  all  four  sides 
of  the  square.  A  street  was  laid  just  Inside  the 

palisades,  going 
all  the  way  round 
the  square,  and 
two  other  streets 
ran  through  the 
centre, 
at  right 
in  the  centre  of 
the  town.  The 
gates  we  re  placed 
where  the  streets 
ended,  in  the  cen 
tre  of  each  side  of 
the  square.  The 
crossing  of  the  streets  made  the  heart  of  the  vil 
lage,  where  there  was  the  church,  perhaps,  and 
a  public  well,  with  a  long  sweep,  and  watering- 
troughs  for  the  cattle.  There  the  Dutchmen  often 
lounged  going  to  and  from  their  work  ;  and  the 
boys  and  girls  sent  for  water  by  their  mothers  let 
their  jugs  stand  (and  get  broken  sometimes)  while 
they  played  with  one  another. 


CHURCH  IN  A  DUTCH  VILLAGE. 


THE    LIFE    OF    THE    DUTCH    COLONISTS.  193 

Each  of  the  quarters  made  by  the  cross-streets 
was  divided  into  eight  lots — on  which  the  good 
people  of  Maize  Land  built  their  solid  houses,  with 
gable-roofs,  little  front  porches  and  sheds  near  by 
for  their  animals.  The  whole  thirty-two  plots 
were  taken  before  the  new  village  was  a  year  old. 
Most  of  the  people  belonged  to  the  families  who 
had  been  attacked  and  driven  away  by  the  In 
dians. 

The  owners  of  the  house-plots  had  their  gar 
dens  outside  the  palisade.  After  a  year  this  little 
town  had  a  charter  and  government  of  its  own  un 
der  the  new  laws  of  the  Company.  The  town  was 
extended  beyond  the  palisade  when  the  Indian 
troubles  seemed  to  be  over.  Sometimes  the  men 
would  thatch  their  cattle-sheds  with  cattails  in 
spite  of  the  law.  Such  parts  of  the  villages  were 
burned  once  or  twice,  which  made  Director  Stuy- 
vesant  very  strict  about  giving  any  one  permission 
to  build  there. 

The  town  of  Bergen  grew  strong  arid  prosper 
ous,  arid  a  number  of  English  settled  there,  as  they 
did  in  other  places  ;  but  in-  Bergen  they  made  no 
trouble. 

"HEADSTRONG  PETER." 

With  all  his  care  of  the  Colony,  Stuyvesant  was 
a  hard  and  haughty  Director.  The  people  called 


194 


THE    COLONIES. 


him  "  Hardkopping  Piet,"  which  means  "Head 
strong  Peter."  During  nearly  all  of  his  long  term, 
he  ruled  them  after  his  own  masterful  will,  in  de 
fiance  of  their  wishes,  and  even  of  the  Company's 
orders.  He  had  his  fine  town-hotfse  and  his  large 


STUYVESANT'S  "BOWERIE"  HOUSE. 


country-house,  with  its  beautiful  bouerie  ;  and  he 
lived  almost  like  a  king  in  his  own  kingdom. 

When  he  first  came  out  to  the  Province,  the 
Company  gave  him  orders  to  govern  it  with  a 
representative  assembly,  and  to  take  many  wise 
and  liberal  measures,  which  would  have  made 
New  Netherland  the  most  free  and  enlightened 
colony  in  the  world.  As  you  know,  the  Province 


THE    LIFE    OF    THE    DUTCH    COLONISTS.  195 

had  always  been  governed  almost  entirely  by  the 
will  of  the  Director.  Stuyvesant  wanted  to  have 
his  way,  too.  He  put  off  making  such  changes  as 
would- give  the  people  charge  of  affairs,  until  they 
could  endure  his  willful  rule  no  longer. 

Even  when  he  was  sharply  rebuked  by  the  Com 
pany  and  ordered  to  do  their  bidding  forthwith, 
he  did  it  slowly,  and  kept  to  his  own  way  as  much 
as  he  possibly  could.  He  was  a  stanch  member  of 
the  Dutch  Reformed  Church,  and  was  so  opposed 
to  all  other  churches  that  he  often  gave  them 
trouble  ;  but  after  he  began  to  grow  old  and 
wiser,  he  welcomed  people  of  all  faiths  and  all 
nations  to  the  protection  of  his  Colony. 

NEW  NETHERLANDER^  FREEDOM. 

The  spirit  of  liberty  was  in  the  Dutch  as  much 
as  in  any  people  of  that  age — perhaps  more.  After 
the  colonists  had  endured  Stuyvesant's  self-willed 
rule  for  several  years,  they  sent  an  address  to 
the  States-General.  They  said  that  the  mode  in 
which  the  Province  was  governed  was  intolerable, 
and  gave  a  long  list  of  the  ways  in  which  they 
were  neglected.  They  asked  to  be  governed  by 
the  States-General.  "  Send  us,"  they  said,  "  god 
ly,  honorable  and  intelligent  rulers,"  and  at  least 
two  schoolmasters  for  a  public  school. 


196  THE    COLONIES. 

This  appeal  attracted  much  attention  in  Hol 
land.  People  asked  if  the  great  merchants  and 
burgomasters  of  the  Amsterdam  Chamber  had 
been  neglecting  the  Colony  and  pocketing  all  the 
profits.  The  Chamber  of  Nineteen  quarreled  with 


BY  THE  BUSY  CANALS  OF  OLD  AMSTERDAM. 

the  States-General.  The  men  went  home  from  the 
meetings  in  bad  humor,  wishing  that  some  folks 
would  mind  their  own  affairs.  Those  were  un 
pleasant  days  to  some  of  the  great  merchants  who 
lived  by  thv1  busy  canals  of  old  Amsterdam.  But 


THE    LIFE    OF    THE    DUTCH    COLONISTS.  197 

the  States-General  was  a  government  for  its  people 
far  away  in  America  as  much  as  for  those  at  home. 
The  Company  was  obliged  to  give  the  Province 
free  trade  in  many  things,  '-The  Amsterdam  Cham 
ber  was  ordered  to  manage  the  Province  in  such 
a  way  that  the  colonists  had  better  care,  besides  a 
share  in  its  profits  and  a  voice  in  the  government. 
Stuyvesant  was  sharply  told  to  give  the  people  the 
rights  he  had  withheld. 

THE  CITY  OF  NEW  AMSTERDAM. 

The  most  important  change  that  came  from  the 
people's  appeal  was  that  which  gave  a  free  govern 
ment  to  the  little  capital.  New  Amsterdam  was 
ordered  to  be  made  a  city  in  April,  1652  ;  but 
Stuyvesant  carried  out  the  orders  slowly,  so  that 
it  was  several  years  before  the  town  was  really 
free — a  city  of  fifteen  hundred  people  and  three 
hundred  houses.  Ten  years  before,  an  English 
city  called  Georgeana  had  been  chartered  in 
Maine,  but  it  was  never  more  than  a  fishing 
village  ;  and  for  a  long  time  New  Amsterdam 
was  the  only  real  city  in  North  America.  The 
charter  for  its  government  was  made  after  the 
charter  of  Amsterdam,  in  Holland.  The  officers 
were  appointed  by  Stuyvesant,  but  they  should 
have  been  elected  by  the  people.  There  were 


198  THE    COLONIES. 

two  Burgomasters,  or  mayors,  and  fourteen 
Fathers  of  the  Burghery,  or  Board  of  City  Fathers, 
who  kept  the  money  and  the  seals  of  the  city 
in  the  Stadt-Huys,  or  City  Hall.  They  made 
the  laws,  took  care  of  the  widows  and  orphans, 


GOVERNOR  STUYVESANT  SHOWING  A  BURGHER  HOW  EASILY  THE  GUNS  OP  AN 

ENEMY  MIGHT  DESTROY  THE  WOODEN  STOCKADE  WHICH  MADE  THE 

WALL  OF  NEW  AMSTERDAM,  WHERE  WALL  STREET  NOW 

CROSSES  A  PART  OF  THE  CITY  OF  NEW  YORK. 

managed  all  the  public  works  and  controlled  the 
soldiers  of  the  city,  which  were  called  the  Burgher 
Gruard. 

Gradually  Stuyvesant  gave  the  people  most  of 


THE    LIFE    OF    THE    DUTCH    COLONISTS.  199 

their  rights,  but  not  without  many  quarrels.  For 
twelve  years  the  city  of  New  Amsterdam  flourished 
under  the  love  and  the  care  of  its  burghers.  Stuy- 
vesant  tried  hard  to  induce  the  people  to  fortify 
their  city.  He  showed  them  that  the  log  pali 
sade  was  a  poor  barrier  against  English  guns. 
He  reminded  them  that  the  little  fort  which  had 
once  been  the  main  part  of  the  town  could  no 
longer  defend  "  the  capital,  adorned  with  so  many 
noble  buildings  at  the  expense  of  the  good  and 
faithful  inhabitants,  principally  Dutchmen."  But 
the  burghers  would  not  take  the  Director's  ad 
vice. 

THE  ENGLISH  INFLUENCE. 

There  were  rumors  of  wars.  Some  preparations 
had  been  made  by  the  New  Englanders,  for  the 
Connecticut  and  New  Haven  people  desired  noth 
ing  more  than  to  fight  their  Dutch  neighbors. 

o  o  o 

They  had  taken  the  House  of  Hope  on  the  Connec 
ticut  and  some  of  the  Long  Island  towns,  though 
Stuyvesant  let  them  have  nothing  except  by  orders 
from  Holland.  But  the  brave  Director  could  not 
rouse  the  New  Netherlanders  to  spend  money  for 
defenses,  nor  to  fear  the  coming  of  the  gunboats 
of  Charles  II.  The  truth  was  that  almost  half  of 
the  people  were  English ;  they  were  not  satisfied 
with  the  Company  nor  with  the  self-will  of  the 


200  THE    COLONIES. 

Director;  many  thought  they  would  all  be  hap 
pier  under  an  English  government. 

You  know  that  the  English  kings  never  admitted 
that  the  Dutch  and  Swedes  had  any  right  to  the 
country  they  settled  ;  but  their  colonies  were  not 
large  enough  to  pay  for  the  trouble  of  conquer 
ing  them  until  after  King  Charles  II.  took  the 
throne.  Just  before  he  was  allowed  to  become 
king,  England,  under  Cromwell,  made  a  treaty 
with  the  Dutch,  granting  their  rights  to  New 
Netherland.  The  new  King  cared  nothing  for  that. 
Xew  Netherland  was  worth  having1,  so  he  told  his 

o  1 

brother  James,  the  Duke  of  York  and  Albany, 
that  he  could  have  it  for  his  own,  if  he  chose  to 
send  out  gunboats  and  soldiers,  who  could  take  it 

c? 

from  the  Dutch. 

THE  FALL  OF  NEW  NETHEBLAND. 

One  August  day;  in  1664,  the  people  of  the  little 
American  city  saw  that  the  Director's  fears  had 
come  true.  Four  English  gunboats  were  in  the 


harbor,    with    almost    one    hundred    p*reat 

o 

bristling  against  the  Dutch  claim  and  with  four 
hundred  and  fifty  soldiers  of  the  line  aboard.  Their 
commander,  Colonel  Richard  Nieholls,  sent  letters 
ashore  to  the  Director,  ordering  him  to  surrender 
the  entire  Province. 


STUYVESANT  TORE  THE  ENGLISH  LETTERS  IN  PIECES  AND  CALLED  UPON  His 
COUNCIL  TO  DEFEND  THEIR  CAPITAL. 


201 


202  THE   COLONIES. 

Stuyvesant  heard  the  letters  read  as  he  sat  in 
council  with  the  leading  men  of  the  city.  After 
the  reading  was  finished  he  jumped  from  his  chair, 
tore  the  letters  in  pieces,  and  stamped  with  his 
wooden  leg,  while  he  called  upon  his  Council  to 
rouse  the  burghers  to  defend  their  capital.  But 
the  others  said  that  there  were  neither  soldiers  nor 
powder  and  ball  enough  to  make  any  sort  of  de 
fense  ;  resistance  would  only  risk  their  lives  and 
cause  the  ruin  of  their  pretty  city,  while  the  Eng 
lish  would  come  in  just  the  same.  In  vain  the  Di 
rector  appealed  to  them.  There  was  no  resistance. 
So  the  order  was  given  to  lower  the  Dutch  West 
India  Company's  flag  from  the  place  where  it  had 
floated  for  forty  years.  The  English  came  ashore. 
The  strange  soldiers  stood  in  double  file  while  the 
Burgher  Guard  inarched  out  of  the  fort. 


THE  DUKE'S  PROVINCE  OF  NEW  YORK.    203 


CHAPTER  X. 

THE  DUKE'S  PROVINCE  OP  NEW  YORK. 

THE  Middle  Colonies  fell  under  English  rule  in 
1664  and  remained  under  it  for  one  hundred  and 
ten  years,  excepting-  for  about  fourteen  months  in 
1673  and  1674,  when  the  Dutch  regained  con 
trol. 

His  Majesty  Charles  II.  coolly  gave  patents  to 
his  brother  James,  the  Duke  of  York  and  Albany, 
for  all  the  land  claimed  by  the  Dutch,  from  the 
Connecticut  River  and  the  region  of  Lake  Ontario 
southward,  beyond  the  Delaware  Bay ;  also  to 
Martha's  Vineyard,  Nantucket,  arid  the  beautiful 
forest-covered  Maine  country,  between  the  Kenne- 
bec  River  and  the  St.  Lawrence  River.  These 
boundaries  were  finally  cut  down  to  about  the 
limits  of  the  present  State  of  New  York,  after  some 
bitter  border  quarrels,  especially  with  the  people 
of  Connecticut  and  New  Hampshire. 

The  great  Province  of  New  York  was  the  private 


204  THE   COLONIES. 

property  of  the  selfish  grandson  of  old  King  James 
I.  for  twenty-four  years  ;  the  last  three  of  which  he 
was  King  James  II.  The  change  was  the  begin 
ning  of  a  strange  new  life  of  harder  times  than 
ever  for  the  colonists. 


CHANGES  UNDER  THE  DUKE. 

Lieutenant  Nicholls  made  his  changes  with  as 
much  kindness  as  he  could.  A  few  of  the  Dutch 
men  felt  as  Stuyvesant  did,  angry  at  the  in 
truders  ;  but  the  English  officer  did  not  make  mat 
ters  any  worse  than  was  necessary.  He  promised 
the  people  that  their  customs  should  be  altered 
but  gradually,  and  told  them  that  the  Duke  prom 
ised  them  a  liberal  government, 

He  changed  the  names  of  the  Province  and 
the  city  to  New  York.  The  fort  he  called  Fort 
James.  The  largest  of  the  towns  on  the  Hudson 
received  the  Duke's  second  title,  Albany.  Nearly 
all  the  other  places  of  any  size  were  either  renamed 
or  the  Dutch  names  turned  into  English.  There 
were  about  a  dozen  towns,  besides  several  small 
villages  and  scattered  farms.  Most  of  these  were 
near  the  mouth  of  the  Hudson  and  near  Albany. 
The  farthest  settlement  was  Schenectady,  on  the 
Mohawk  River. 


THE  DUKE'S  PROVINCE  OF  NEW  YORK. 


205 


n  the  quaint  little  Dutch  towns  of  Long  Island 
the  new  rule  was  bitterly  resented  ;  but  in  some  of 
the  neighboring  villages,  which  had  been  set 
tled  by  Englishmen  from  Ncwhaveri  and  Con 
necticut,  the  people  thought  that. they  should 
have  no  more  trouble  after  they  were  placed 
under  their  own  Duke  and  set  up  in  a  county 
called  Yorkshire.  This  county  included  the  whole 
island,  and  the  English  said  that  Yorkshire  courts 
would  make  the  independent  Dutch  towns  behave 
themselves. 

Altogether  there  were  about  twelve  thousand 
people  in  the  Province.  In  our  day,  that  number 
of  people  in  one  place  hardly  makes  a  good-sized 
town . 

A  little  less  than  half  of  these  people  were  called 
"English;"  they  were  English.  \Velsh,  Scotch, 
and  Irish.  A. little  more  than  half  of  them  were 


206 


THE   COLONIES. 


called  "Dutch1';  they  were  French,  Swiss,  Prus 
sians,  Germans.  There  were  a  few  others  of  al 
most  every  nation  on  the  earth.  Eighteen  differ 
ent  languages  were  spoken  in  the  little  capital. 
The  "English"  and  the  "Dutch77  parties  were 


THE  VAN  CORTLANDT  MANOR-HOUSE. 

opposed  to  each  other  in  many  affairs  of  the  Prov 
ince. 

The  patrooneries  were  not  altered  except  in 
name.  They  were  called  manors,  and  the  pro 
prietors  were  lords  of  'manors.  u  No  aristocrats  in 


THE  DUKE7S  PROVINCE  OF  NEW  YORK.    207 

America  so  nearly  resembled  the  nobility  of  the 
Old  World  as  the  great  landed  Dutch  proprietors 
in  New  York — such  as  the  Yari  Rensselaers,  the  Yan 
Cortlandts  and  the  Livingstons.  Their  vast  estates 
.  .  .  were  rented  out  to  tenant-farmers,  over  whom 
they  ruled  in  princely  fashion."  They  owned 
negro  slaves,  who  worked  their  tobacco  planta 
tions,  cultivated  the  farms,  and  were  in  all  sorts  of 
household  service. 

In  the  winter  the  proprietors  and  their  families 
removed  to  their  large  city  houses.  There,  too, 
the  wealthy  merchants  used  " blacks,"  as  they 
called  the  negroes,  in  their  business  about  the 
wharves  and  warehouses  and  in  their  homes.  But 
there  were  not  such  numbers  of  slaves  in  the  Mid 
dle  Colonies  as  in  the  South.  White  slaves  were 

f  • 

almost  unknown. 

FIRST    ENGLISH    SOLDIERS   IN   NEW   YORK. 

The  Duke's  conquest  in  New  York  reopened 
war  between  England  and  Holland.  So,  one  of 
Nicholls'  first  cares  was  to  strengthen  the  old  fort 
and  prepare  the  city  against  an  attack  from  Hol 
land.  The  English  had  begun  to  fear  the  Dutch 
navy,  and  they  soon  had  good  reason  to  do  so. 

The  soldiers  Nicholls  brought  with  him  might 
be  much  needed.  He  intended  to  make  them  live 


208  THE    COLONIES. 

with  the  citizens — to  "quarter  "  them  on  the  people; 
hut  the  leading  officers  objected  strongly,  and  it 
was  arranged  that  each  citizen  should  pay  some 
thing  toward  a  fund  to  keep  them  in  barracks 
by  themselves.  Even  this  seemed  hard.  The 
Dutch  were  not  only  obliged  to  submit  to  a  new 
master  and  new  government,  but  they  must  sup 
port  a  standing  army  of  foreigners  when  no  other 
colony  was  obliged  to  do  so,  except  Virginia, 
which  had  a  few  troops  for  a  short  time. 

The  soldiers  in  New  York  had  their  grievances, 
too.  The  citizens  could  afford  to  pay  so  little  that 
they  selpt  on  straw,  and  had  to  endure  many  other 
hardships.  The  good-hearted  Governor  Nicholls 
spent  his  own  fortune  to  feed  these  wretched  men. 

FALSE  PROMISES  OF  FREE  GOVERNMENT. 

The  Duke  promised  the  people  a  liberal  govern 
ment,  arid  at  first  they  thought  they  were  fortunate 
to  be  under  him.  Governor  Nicholls  had  his  or 
ders  to  frame  a  set  of  laws,  which  he  copied  partly 
from  the  laws  of  Connecticut  and  Massachusetts  ; 
but  he  was  obliged  to  place  them  under  the  con 
trol  of  the  Duke  instead  of  under  the  control  of 
the  people,  as  in  the  Xew  England  Colonies.  They 
were  called  the  "Duke's  Laws,"  and  were  hated. 

Nicholls  also  had  orders  to  call  for  an  assembly  of 


THE  DUKE'S  PROVINCE  OF  NEW  YORK.    209 

defegates  elected  by  the  people.  He  and  his  Coun 
cil  met  with  them  in  the  newly  named  Fort  James. 
But  the  Duke  kept  all  the  power,  even  to  lay 
taxes  and  appoint  officers. 

That  was  a  sample  of  all  the  Duke's  promises. 
While  he  assured  the  people  that  every  one  should 
have  his  own  religion,  he  ordered  the  whole  Prov 
ince  to  be  laid  off  into  parishes,  and  each  parish  to 
build  an  Episcopal  church.  It  was  thanks  to 
Nicholls,  not  to  the  bigoted  English  Duke,  that  the 
Dutch  were  well  treated.  In  the  capital  the  Eng 
lish  quietly  held  Sunday-afternoon  services  in  the 
church  in  the  fort,  while  the  Dutch  used  it  in  the 
mornings,  just  as  they  had  done  ever  since  it  was 
built  by  Kieft.  After  a  time  the  English  built  a 
church  of  their  own  where  Old  Trinity  now  stands. 

The  people  soon  saw  that  the  promises  were  all 
falsehoods.  The  new  proprietor  they  had  accepted 
so  willingly  was  a  tyrant.  He  cared  nothing  for 
the  Province  but  to  use  it  for  his  own  profit. 

THE    CITY    OF    NEW   YORK. 

Almost  the  only,  good  thing  James  did  for  the 
Colonies,  either  as  duke  or  as  king,  was  to  continue 
the  free  government  of  the  capital  of  the  Province. 
In  less  than  a  year  after  the  conquest  he  changed 
the  Dutch  burgher  rule  to  the  English  form  of 


210  THE    COLONIES. 

city  government,  with  a  mayor,  aldermen  and 
sheriff.  The  first  mayor  was  Thomas  Willett,  "a 
useful  and  active  man,'7  who  had  lately  corne  from 
New  Plymouth  to  live  in  New  Netherland.  There 
were  seven  new  officers  ;  four  of  them  were  Dutch 
men,  three  Englishmen.  A  Dutchman  was  ap 
pointed  secretary  to  translate  the  Dutchmen's 
papers  arid  speeches  ;  for  the  official  language  of 
the  country  was  English. 

The  city  filled  the  lower  end  of  Manhattan  Island, 
which  was  much  smaller  than  it  is  now.  Battery 
Park  was  a  mass  of  rocks,  often  covered  by  the 
tide  almost  to  the  fort,  which  was  just  below  Bowl 
ing  Green.  The  city  lay  above  the  Bowling  Green, 
along  the  high  land  to  the  palisade  or  wall,  which 
gave  place  long  afterward  to  Wall  street.  This 
high  land  had  one  long  street,  which  grew  from  an 
Indian  trail,  and  which  the  English  called  Broad 
way.  This  was  not  then  the  main  street.  On  the 
west,  the  Hudson  River  came  to  the  foot  of  a  lovely 
hill,  where  Trinity  Church  was  built.  On  the  other 
side,  short  streets  ran  down  hill  to  the  town  wind 
mill,  the  fort,  the  new  Governor's  House  some  dis 
tance  away,  along  the  shore  of  the  East  River.  That 
side  was  well  built  up  with  dwellings  and  ware 
houses  fronting  on  the  harbor  and  on  little  canals 
up  side  streets.  Along  the  strand  were  several 


THE  DUKE'S  PROVINCE  OF  NEW  YORK.    211 

docks  that  gave  the  name  of  Dock  street  to  the 
water  -  front,  afterward  called  Pearl  street,  be 
cause  it  was  paved  with  oyster  -  shells.  That 
was  the  main  street,  .and  many  fine  houses 
were  built  there.  Now  the  shore  has  been  filled 
in,  so  that  Pearl  street  is  some  distance  from  the 
water. 

The  rest  of  "  the  island  was  covered  with  woods, 
meadows,  fens  and  lakes,  and  some  lofty  hills," 
which  were  "  almost  overrun  with  horses  bred 
wild."  '  The  fertile  soil  produced  apples,  pears, 
peaches,  plums,  cherries,  quinces  medlars,  better 
than  at  home.  Vines  grew  wild  everywhere,  and 
there  was  an  abundance  of  blue  and  white  grapes  ; 
a  wine  was  already  made  from  them  equal  to  any 
Rhenish  or  French.  Vegetables  filled  the  gar 
dens  ;  corn  grew  rapidly  ;  the  virgin  soil  was 
suited  to  every  kind  of  plant  or  tree  and  to  flow 
ers  of  pleasant  odors  and  rare  beauty." 

In  Europe  poor  people  could  not  buy  meat  ;  but 
here  they  "lived  in  abundance.  Venison  was 
so  plenty  that  few  sheep  were  raised  ;  fowls, 
turkeys,  geese,  ducks,  pigeons,  were  easily  ob 
tained."  Hogs  made  the  "sweetest  pork, "'from 
eating  Indian  corn.  "  Cattle  arid  horses  did  well 
on  the  salt  meadows  ;  the  oysters  of  the  bays  were 
famous  ;  fish  of  all  the  finest  kinds  filled  the  waters ; 


212  THE    COLONIES. 

the  climate  was  dry  and   healthful,  although  cold 
in  winter  and  hot  in  summer." 

Those  of  the  Dutch  who  were  the  most  bitter 
against  the  English  were  not  willing  to  go  back  to 
the  old  life  in  Europe,  even  if  they  had  to  take  the 
comforts  of  their  new  homes  under  a  foreign  gov 
ernment. 

THE  RETURN  OF  THE  DUTCH. 

Many  of  the  colonists  soon  wished  that  they  had 
not  been  so  willing  to  accept  the  English  rule. 
Some  went  so  far  as  to  ask  the  States-General  to 
take  them  from  the  Duke's  control. 

The  Dutch  did  not  submit  meekly  to  the  con 
quest.  War  was  declared  against  England,  arid 
the  Dutch  West  India  Company  sent  out  officers 
as  soon  as  possible  to  take  their  province  out  of 
the  hands  of  the  English  ;  but  they  could  get  no 
farther  than  Staten  Island.  Some  of  the  Dutch 
towns  on  Long  Island  plotted  with  them  to  make 
a  revolt.  But  the  plan  was  discovered.  The  plot 
ters  were  fined,  put  in  the  stocks,  and  threatened 
with  still  heavier  punishments.  That  happened 
within  the  first  few  years  after  the  conquest.  In  all 
the  long  course  of  the  terrible  war,  the  victorious 
ships  of  Holland  visited  the  American  coast  but 
once.  Then  they  seized  the  shipping  in  the  Chesa 
peake,  arid  did  not  go  near  New  York. 


THE  DUKE'S  PROVINCE  OF  NEW  YORK.    213 

But  they  came  when  another  war  broke  out, 
nearly  ten  years  later.  Nicholls  had  left  the  Prov 
ince  by  tliat  time.  Sir  Francis  Lovelace  was  the 
Governor. 

When  the  sun  rose  one  midsummer  morning  in 
1673,  the  people  living  about  New  York  Harbor 
were  surprised  to  see  nineteen  gunboats,  carrying 
over  a  thousand  men,  lying  within  musket-shot  of 
Fort  James.  Then  the  wonderful  news  spread 
through  the  city  that  they  were  a  portion  of  the 
glorious  Netherlands7  squadron  which  had  nearly 
swept  the  British  commerce  from  the  seas.  The 
son  of -the  great  Admiral  Evertsen  and  Captain 
Binckes  were  in  command.  Governor  Lovelace 
was  away  on  business,  and  the  defenses  were  not 
in  good  order. 

Soon  after  daybreak,  the  commanders  sent  this 
message  to  Captain  Manning,  commander  of  the 
fort  :  ''We  have  come  for  our  own,  and  our  own 
we  will  have.  We  will  fire  unless  the  Dutch  flag 
is  hoisted  in  half  an  hour.'' 

The  flag  was  not  hoisted.  The  gunboats  fired 
on  the  fort,  and  landed  six  hundred  men.  In  the 
city,  the  Dutchmen  mustered  the  old  Burgher 
Guard  to  join  the  States-General's  soldiers.  The 
fort  was  besieged.  Captain  Manning  had  but 
severity-six  men.  He  soon  opened  the  gates.  The 


214  THE    COLONIES. 

Dutch  entered,  beating  their  tlrums  an'd  flying  the 
blue,  white  and  orange  flag  of  Holland. 

The  fort  was  called  William  Hendrick,  the  city 
was  named  New  Orange,  arid  the  Province  becarne 
New  Netherland  again.  This  time  the  govern 
ment  of  New  Netherland  was  in  the  name  of  the 
States-  General . 

The  fleet  sailed  away,  leaving  the  Province  in 
charge  of  Captain  Anthony  Colve,  one  of  the  best 

governors  the  people  ever 
had.  For  fourteen  months 
everything  was  Dutch  in 
the  land.  It  has  been  said 
that  during  this  short  pe 
riod  New  Netherland  was 

THE    FLAG    OP    HOLLAND.    ^    happiegtj       the    bcSt-gOV^ 

erned  and  the  most  pros 
perous  colony  in  America.  Some  of  the  English 
towns  on  Long  Island  tried  to  resist ;  but  Gov 
ernor  Colve  soon  showed  them  that  the  Dutch 
were  the  masters  of  New  Netherland  at  last.  But 
it  was  only  for  a  little  while.  The  news  of  the 
conquest  did  not  reach  Europe  until  after  Hol 
land  and  England  had  begun  to  make  peace,  and 
Holland  had  agreed  to  sign  away  all  claims  in 
North  America  in  the  treaty  of  Westminster, 
1674. 


THE    DUKES    PROVINCE    OF    NEW    YORK. 
NEW    YORK    FOREVER. 


215 


In  the  fall  of  1674,  the  Duke's  government  was 
set  up  again.  The  country  was  renamed  New 
York — tins  time  it  was  forever,  probably.  This 
was  done  by  Major  Edmund  Aridros,  whom  the 


A  FRESH  POND  IN  NEW  YORK  OF  ANDROS'S  TIME. 

It  was  about  where  the  prison  in  Centre  Street  now  stands.    The  Dutch 

called  it  the  "  Kalk-hoeck,"  from  which  the  English 

named  it  "  The  Collect." 

Dutch  Governor  received  politely,  and  presented 
with  his  own  handsome  coach  and  three  beautiful 
Flemish  horses.  Amid  the  firing  of  great  guns, 


216  THE    COLONIES. 

the  blood-red  flag  of  England  was  again  run  up 
the  flagstaff  of  .Fort  James. 

o 

Governor   Andros  was  a  soldier  and  a  gentle- 

CT 

man  above  reproach  in  many  qualities  ;  but  in  the 
seven  years  that  he  ruled  the  Province  he  won 
the  name  of  a  tyrant,  while  he  was  as  kind  and 
just  as  he  could  be  in  carrying  out  the  orders  of 
the  tyrant  proprietor.  It  is  interesting  to  read, 
in  the  grown  folks'  histories,  how  he  looked  after 
all  the  affairs  of  the  Province.  He  took  care  of 
the  records  that  give  us  much  of  our  knowledge 
about  those  times  ;  he  formed  the  militia  of  the 
city  and  towns  into  companies,  which  were  trained 
to  keep  in  order  and  to  become  first-rate  shots  by 
practicing  at  a  mark,  although  almost  every  man 
had  a  different  sort  of  gun.  Every  citizen  and 
townsman  was  obliged  to  keep  his  weapons  in 
good  order,  with  an  ample  supply  of  powder  and 
ball  at  home,  ready  to  shoulder  his  arms  and 
run  to  the  muster  when  he  heard  the  first  tap  of 
the  drum. 

The  Duke  often  sent  word  that  he  wanted 
the  colonists  to  send  him  a  larger  income,  and 
sometimes  he  complained.  Yet  he  and  his  royal 
brother  were  pleased  enough  after  a  few  years, 
to  make  Andros  a  knight  for  the  wise  manner  in 
which  he  had  managed  the  affairs  of  the  Province. 


THE    DUKE?S    PROVINCE    OF    NEW    YORK.          217 

Sir  Edmund  Andros  became  a  great  man  in  the 
Colonies. 

THE    PEOPLE'S    BIGHTS. 

The  Duke  forced  Sir  Edmund  to  lay  as  many 
taxes  on  the  people  as  he  possibly  could,  in  order 
to  add  to  his  Grace's  spending-money.  The  Gov 
ernor  was  even  obliged  to  tax  the  vessels  that  took 
goods  to  New  Jersey,  which  was  owned  and  gov 
erned  by  the  Carteret  family,  who  were  relatives 
and  good  friends  of  Andros.  This  led  to  trouble 
in  both  the  Provinces.  Andros  sent  men  to  arrest 
his  kinsman,  Governor  Carteret ;  and  there  was  a 
sad  and  exciting  time,  all  to  put  a  few  pounds  into 
the  pocket  of  a  duke. 

At  length,  when  Andros  was  away,  the  colonists 
rebelled  against  his  government,  and  made  a  pris 
oner  of  his  lieutenant-governor,  Anthony  Brock- 

holls. 

The  King  and  his  friend,  William  Penn,  advised 
the  Duke  to  be  easier  on  the  colonists,  and  to  allow 
them  some  government  of  their  own.  The  Duke 
said  he  would  rather  sell  the  whole  Province  ;  but 
he  changed  his  mind  when  he  considered  the  valu 
able  trade  of  the  people.  Then  he  sent  out  a 
good  and  able  governor  in  Thomas  Dongari,  and. 
a  charter  of  liberties  and  privileges,  which  prom- 


218  THE   COLONIES. 

ised  the  people   the  right  to  elect  their  own  law 
makers  and  to  tax  themselves. 

The  first  Representative  Assembly  of  the  people 
of  New  York  sat  for  three  weeks  in  Fort  James, 
in  the  autumn  of  1683.  They  formed  a  modesl 
set  of  laws,  and  made  excellent  arrangements  tc 
improve  the  trade  and  other  affairs  of  the  Colony. 
But  that  was  all  the  good  it  did  them. 

WHEN   JAMES    II.    WAS    KING. 

While  the  people  were  waiting  for  the  Duke  to 
confirm  their  laws  with  the  Liberties  and  Privi 
leges,  they  received,  instead,  the  news  that  Charles 
II.  was  dead,  and  the  Duke  had  become  King 
James  II.  Then  the  Assembly  was  dissolved. 

The  next  news  was  that  New  York  had  been 
turned  over  to  the  Privy  Council,  which  managed 
the  other  .Royal  provinces.  After  that  more  tid 
ings  came  that  nearly  broke  the  people's  hearts. 
They  were  that  his  Majesty  had  made  the  whole 
country,  from  the  Delaware  to  Canada,  into  the 
Dominion  of  New  England,  with  the  capital  at  Bos 
ton,  and  Sir  Edmund  Andros  Governor-General. 

Before  long  Sir  Edmund  made  a  visit  of  great 
ceremony  to  the  City  of  New  York,  broke  the  Seal 
of  the  Province,  told  the  people  their  duty  under 
the  new  Dominion,  and  placed  them  in  charge  of 


THE  DUKE'S  PROVINCE  OF  NEW  YORK.    219 

Captain  Francis  Nicholson.  He  was  a  good  and 
able  man  ;  but  the  people  were  hurt  and  angry 
at  every  one  who  belonged  to  the  new  govern- 
inent.  There  were  quarrels  of  all  kinds  for  three 
years,  when  the  Dominion  government  came  to 
a  violent  end  in  an  open  rebellion.  Then  Jacob 
Leisler  and  the  old  Burgher  Guard  took  possession 
of  the  capital,  and  held  it  until  peace  was  restored 
under  the  new  king  and  queen  of  England,  Wil 
liam  and  Mary. 


220  THE    COLONIES. 


CHAPTEE  XL 

THE  PALATINATE   OF  NEW   JERSEY. 

MEANTIME  there  were  great  changes  in  the 
county  across  the  Hudson  River. 

When  the  Duke  planned  his  conquest  of  New 
Netherland,  he  told  Nicholls  to  name  the  westerly 
portion  of  the  Province  Albania,  for  his  second 
dukedom.  But  his  Grace  changed  his  mind  after 
Nicholls  sailed  away  ;  and  two  months  before  his 
fleet  entered  New  York  Harbor  James  sold  the 
whole  of  his  great  westerly  peninsula  to  Sir  George 
Carteret  and  Lord  Berkeley.  You  have  heard  of 
them  among  the  Proprietors  of  Carolina,  which 
was  granted  about  this  same  time. 

The  Duke  sold  them  his  full  powers  over  this 
westerly  part  of  his  Province,  making  it  a  separate 
palatinate,  much  like  Maryland  and  the  other  pro 
prietary  provinces. 

King  Charles  arid  the  Duke  called  it  New 
Cesarea,  or  New  Jersey,  because  in  the  war  that 
had  cost  their  father,  Charles  I.,  his  throne  and  his 
head,  Sir  George  Carteret  had  sheltered  the  crown 


THE    PALATINATE    OF    NEW    JERSEY.  221 

prince  in  his  fortress  at  Jersey.  That  fortress  was 
the  last  in  the  realm  to  lower  the  Royal  flag  to 
Cromwell's  army  ;  and  then  Carteret  only  obeyed 
the  Prince,  who  sent  the  command  from  his  hiding 
in  some  other  place. 

Carteret  and  Berkeley  planned  that  their  colonists 
should  be  free  to  worship  God  as  they  wished, 
and  that  they  should  govern  themselves  under  the 
laws  of  England.  They  drew  up  papers,  promis 
ing  the  settlers  of  their  Province  much  such  privi 
leges  as  Lord  Baltimore  had  given  the  settlers  of 
Maryland  over  thirty  years  before.  These  papers 
were  known  as  the  Concessions  arid  Agreement 
of  the  Lord  Proprietors  of  New  Jersey.  If  you 
should  read  the  old  records  of  the  Province,  you 
would  see  a  great  deal  about  these  "  Concessions," 
as  they  were  commonly  called. 

THE  FIRST  TOWNS  IN  THE  "  GARDEN  STATE." 

Meantime  Nicholls  knew  nothing  of  the  Duke's 
sale  of  Albania,  and  did  as  he  was  bidden,  taking 
special  interest  in  this  fruitful  part  of  the  new 
domain,  which  is  now  sometimes  called  the  "  Gar 
den  State."  The  soil  was  rich,  the  waters  were 
full  of  fish,  the  Indians  were  peaceable,  and  had 
peltries  for  a  good  trade.  The  Dutch  had  several 


222 


THE    COLONIES. 


thriving  towns  and  prosperous  farms  opposite  New 
York. 

At  that  time,  there 
was  not  an  English  set 
tlement  between  the 
Hudson  and  the  Dela 
ware.  Nicholls  began 
at  once  to  send  through 
New  England 


for  set 
tlers.  He  planned  to 
build  ports  and  cities 
and  to  lay  out  farms. 
He  thought  they  would 
surpass  everything  in  New  York.  He  took  pains 
to  please  the  Dutch  who  were  there.  Among 

other  privileges, 
he  allowed  them 
to  keep  the  names 
of  their  settlements. 
One  of  these  was 
Hobocan,  the  In 
dian  name  for  a 
kind  of  pipe  made 
of  a  stone  found  in 


THE  WATERS  OF  NEW  JERSEY  WERE 
FULL  OP  FISH. 


THEY  COULD  WATCH  THE  VESSELS  IN 
THE  HARBOU. 


that 


region. 


The 


other  settlements  were  Bergen,  Communipau,  and 
Ahasimus.     All  three  of  them  were  long  ago  in- 


THE    PALATINATE    OF    NEW    JERSEY.  223 

eluded  in  Jersey  City.  They  were  pretty  places, 
where  the  Dutch  could  sit  on  the  grass  and  look 
over  at  New  York  or  watch  the  vessels  in  the 
harbor. 

Within  a  year,  Nicholls  granted  land  for  four 
new  settlements.  The  first  English  planters  were 
men  from  Long  Island  and  Connecticut.  They 
received  permission  to  carry  on  whale-fisheries. 
In  1664  they  began  to  make  their  settlement. 
They  were  united  in  a  town  association  after  the 
custom  in  New  England.  They  planted  opposite 
the  mouth  of  what  we  call  Newark  Bay.  The 
Dutch  called  it  the  Achter-kull,  which  the  Eng 
lish  made  into  After-cull.  That  meant  the  cull, 
or  bay,  after  the  great  bay. 

Because  the  Duke  had  changed  his  mind  and 
sold  the  westerly  portion  of  his  conquest,  the 
history  of  this  Colony  was  changed.  The  next 
story  is  how  After-cull  settlement  became  Eliza 
beth  Town. 

ELIZABETH  TOWN. 

Sir  G-eorge  Carteret  soon  sent  out  his  brother, 
Philip  Carteret,  with  a  colony  from  his  estates  in 
Jersey. 

The  Carterets  were  an  old  French  family,  who 
had  long  been  good  and  loyal  subjects  to  Eng- 


224  THE    COLONIES. 

land,  although  they  and  the  people  on  their  es 
tates  in  Jersey  still  kept  to  their  French  lan 
guage  and  customs.  - 

The  After-cull  Colony  were  not  glad  to  see  this 
new  company.  In  the  first  place,  they  had  the 
Duke's  patents  from  Nicholls,  which  seemed  so 
liberal  that  they  did  not  want  to  change  them. 
Besides  that,  some  of  the  settlers  had  an  English 
hatred  of  the  French. 

It  is  said  that  they  could  riot  refuse  to  go  to 
meet  young  Carteret  when  they  saw  him  land 
near  their  houses,  and  walk  up  from  the  shore 
with  a  hoe  on  his  shoulder  to  show  that,  gentle 
man  as  he  was,  he  came  to  work.  He  was  so 
agreeable  and  so  straightforward  that  they  im 
mediately  offered  him  arid  his  company  the  shelter 
of  their  new  houses.  In  a  short  time  they  felt  at 
home  with  the  strangers,  and  liked  them,  for  all 
their  foreign  ways. 

Governor  Carteret  offered  to  give  the  Puritans 
the  Proprietors'  grants  for  their  land,  assuring1  them 
that  the  rent,  which  was  a  half-penny  the  acre? 
would  not  be  collected  until  five  years  after  a 
settler  took  up  his  land.  He  also  assured  them 
that  the  Concessions  arid  Agreement  would  make 
them  happier  colonists  than  any  of  the  Duke's 
offers,  which  was  quite  true. 


THE    PALATINATE    OF    NEW    JERSEY. 


225 


At  length  they  agreed  to  stay,  and  to  allow 
Carteret  and  others  of  his  company  to  enter  their 
town  associa-  ji| 

tion.     Then  the  — 

Governor  made 
the  After-cull 
settlement  the 
capital  of  the 
Province.  I  n 
.honor  of  Sir 
George  Carte- 
ret's  wife,  it  was 
called  Eliza 
beth  Town.  The 
young  leader 
and  his  princi 
pal  men  built 
good  houses,  and  every  man  soon  had  his  own 
comfortable  fireside. 

THE  GOVERNMENT  AND  THE  PEOPLE. 

Governor  Carteret  soon  sent  word  to  every  set 
tlement  in  New  Jersey,  notifying  the  landholders 
to  elect  their  delegates  to  meet  the  Governor  and 
Council  of  six  of  the  leading  colonists  in  general 
assembly  at  Elizabeth  Town. 

The  Assembly  was  held  in  May,  1668.  The  Gov- 


EVERY  MAN  SOON  HAD  His  OWN  COMFORTABLE 
FIRESIDE. 


226  THE    COLONIES. 

ernor  told  the  delegates  that  the  Proprietors  gave 
them  the  right  to  govern  and  tax  themselves,  and 
wished  them  to  enjoy  the  privileges  of  free  English 
men.  This  was  about  twenty  years  before  the  colo 
nists  of  New  York  were  able  to  enjoy  the  same  rights. 

The  Dutchmen  willingly  accepted  their  new 
Proprietors  with  The  Concessions  and  the  young 
Governor,  who  was  devoted  to  the  good  of  the 
Colony.  The  Dutch  were  sensible  enough  to  be 
happy  that  they  had  fallen  under  proprietors  who 
were  both  liberal  and  honest,  instead  of  having  to 
live  under  the  shifting  promises  of  the  Duke. 

Unfortunately,  the  English  settlers  were  riot  so 
sensible.  They  made  no  end  of  trouble.  They 
wanted  everything  the  Proprietors  promised  in 
The  Concessions,  but  were  unwilling  to  keep  to  their 
side  of  the  agreement.  They  also  wanted  all  that 
they  had  hoped  to  have  under  Nicholls'  patents  from 
the  Duke,  but  never  would  have  had.  They  could 
see  how  the  Duke  was  breaking  his  promises  to 
the  New  Yorkers,  but  they  would  not  admit  that 
their  own  Proprietors  treated  them  more  fairly. 

"A  TEMPEST    IN   A    TEAPOT." 

The  English  of  Elizabeth  Town  complained  and 
quarreled  about  one  thing  or  another  nearly  all 
the  time—"  a  tempest  in  a  teapot." 


THE    PALATINATE    OF    NEW    JERSEY.  227 

Once  Sir  George  Carteret's  worthless  son,  ' '  Cap 
tain  James,"  came  to  the  Town  on  his  way  to  be 
made  a  landgrave  of  Carolina.  The  people  wel 
comed  him  as  if  he  had  greater  powers  than  the 
Governor.  He  had  no  authority  ;  Init  he  accepted 
the  people's  honors  and  had  a  gay  time,  living  in 
the  Governor's  house,  while  the  Governor  fled  to  the 
peaceful  Dutch  in  Bergen.  From  there  he  went 
to  England. 

When  Sir  George  Carteret  heard  of  the  trouble, 
he  ordered  his  son  to  Carolina  at  once.  To  the 
people  he  sent  word  that  they  must  behave  them 
selves  under  their  Governor ;  but  they  never  did. 

NEW   JERSEY'S    PROSPERITY. 

With  all  the  quarrels,  the  Province  prospered. 
Sir  George  sent  over  several  companies  of  colo 
nists,  well  provided  with  farming  tools  and  sup 
plies.  Governor  Philip  sent  out  agents  to  invite 
settlers  from  other  colonies.  The  agents  read  The 
Concessions  in  the  public  squares  of  the  towns  of 
New  York,  Long  Island  and  the  New  England 
Colonies. 

Whole  towns  removed  from  New  Haven  when 
that  colony  was  placed  under  the  government  of 
Connecticut.  Within  a  few  years  as  many  as  ten 
new  settlements  were  well  started.  The  leading 


228  THE    COLONIES. 

men  of  Elizabeth  Town  were  making  their  fortunes 
in  whale-fisheries  along  the  coast.  .They  sold  some 
of  their  large  tract  to  the  new  towns,  receiving 
good  prices.  Many  of  the  new-comers  were  their 
old  friends,  especially  the  settlers  of  Newark  ;  but 
the  boundaries,  their  neighbors'  trade  and  taxes, 
raised  more  quarrels. 

RETURN  OF  DUTCH  RULE  IN  NEW  JERSEY. 

The  vessel  in  which  Captain  James  Carteret  went 
south  was  overhauled  by  a  gunboat  of  the  great 
Dutch  squadron,  then  scouring  the  seas  for  Eng 
lish  craft.  Samuel  Hopkins,  a  New  Jersey  man  in 
the  vessel  with  Carteret,  told  the  Dutchmen  how 
matters  were  going  in  their  old  New  Netherland, 
especially  how  poorly  New  York  City  was  guarded. 

The  Dutch  commanders  crowded  sail  at  once 
for  New  York,  and  soon  took  the  fort,  as  you 
know.  When  the  news  reached  the  After-cull, 
the  towns  "  in  the  Province  heretofore  called  New 
Yarsey  "  promptly  sent  deputies  to  the  Dutch  con 
querors,  who  granted  them  "the  same  Privileges 
and  Freedoms  as  native-born  subjects  and  Dutch 
towns."  All  the  six  towns,  from  Bergen  to  Shrews 
bury,  were  notified  to  elect  their  Sellout  or  chief 
magistrate,  their  Koopman  or  Secretary,  arid  their 
Schepens  or  representatives,  who  met  together  and 


THE    PALATINATE    OF    NEW    JERSEY.  229 

governed  their  towns  by  themselves,  apart  from 
the  rest  of  New  Netherland  ;  but  after  fourteen 
months  the  English  came  again. 

CABTEBET'S    EAST    JERSEY. 

After  the  English  received  the  country  again, 
Lord  Berkeley  sold  his  share  of  the  palatinate  to 
some  well-known  Englishmen  of  the  Society  of 
Friends — disrespectfully  called  Quakers  in  those 
days.  Sir  George  Carteret  and  the  Friends  then 
divided  the  Province  about  down  the  centre,  Car 
teret  taking  East  Jersey,  the  Friends  taking  West 
Jersey. 

Governor  Philip  went  back  to  Elizabeth  Town. 
An  act  of  Oblivion  was  passed  to  wipe  out  all  the 
old  troubles.  Then  the  Assembly  appointed  a 
Thanksgiving-day  of  prayer  and  feasting.  It  was 
held  in  a  general  holiday  after  harvests  were  gath 
ered  in  the  autumn.  That  was  the  beginning  of 
the  New  Jersey  people's  regular  Thanksgiving, 
many  years  after  the  custom  had  been  settled  in 
New  England. 

But  the  colonists  were  no  more  peaceable  than 
they  had  been  before.  Governor  Carteret  had  a 
hard  time  with  them.  Then,  to  add  to  his  troubles, 
he  was  arrested  by  Sir  Edmund  Andros  and  car 
ried  off  to  New  York  City,  because  he  refused  to 


230  THE    COLONIES. 

pay  a  customs  duty,  which  would  have  been  rob 
bing  the  Proprietor  of  his  own  Province  to  give 
more  spending-money  to  the  Duke.  The  demand 
would  not  have  been  made,  perhaps,  if  the  Duke 
had  not  known  that  Sir  George  Carteret  was  dying. 
In  a  short  time  news  came  that  the  Proprietor  of 
East  Jersey  was  dead,  and  that  the  Province  had 
been  sold  to  a  large  company  of  Quakers  and 
Presbyterians. 

THE  CUSTOMS  OF  EAST  JERSEY. 

The  people  of  the  Dutch  towns  kept  their  own 
customs  for  many  years,  although  they  were 
altered  gradually  by  the  English  people  who 
settled  among  them.  So  the  people  who  lived 
where  Jersey  City  and  Hoboken  are  now,  had 
much  the  same  habits  as  the  old  stock  of  New 
Amsterdam-.  Elizabeth  Town,  you  know,  was 
made  up  of  New  England  people,  of  stern  and 
simple  habits  and  "Frenchified  English,"  as  they 
called  Carteret's  colonists  from  the  Island  of 
Jersey.  Some  of  the  other  towns,  such  as  New 
ark,  were  settled  by  the  most  rigid  of  Puritans. 
As  you  have  read,  they  had  first  planted  their  own 
church  and  colony  of  New  Haven,  but  when  their 
towns  were  included  under  the  charter  of  the  less 
strict  people  of  Connecticut,  they  had  indignantly 


THE    PALATINATE    OF    NEW    JERSEY. 


231 


removed  to  New  Jersey.  Farther  down  the  coast, 
there  were  towns  of  Quakers.  Soon  companies 
of  Scotch  families  began  to  arrive.  These  early 


AN  EARLY  DUTCH  WINDMILL. 


settlers  of  New  Jersey,  who  were  of  many  dif 
ferent  sorts,  each  held  firmly  to  some  of  their 
habits,  while  others  were  aifected  by  their  neigh 
bors. 


232  THE    COLONIES. 

FAIR-DAYS. 

They  had  great  fair  or  market  days,  when  all 
came  together  at  Elizabeth  Town.  Rigid  Inde 
pendents  sold  their  produce  to  Frenchmen,  and 
bought  goods  from  the  Dutch.  They  probably 
used  some  wampum  and  peltries  for  currency,  but 
they  had  little  coin.  Nearly  everything  was  bar 
tered  or  exchanged,  according  to  values  fixed  by 
the  Assembly.  Certain  quantities  of  corn,  potatoes, 
pork,  and  other  things  were  declared  worth  certain 
prices  in  English  money.  The  people  "  swapped  " 
or  "bartered"  one  thing  for  another,  made  their 
"  reckonings,"  and  when  they  were  "about  even'' 
they  came  to  a  "jumping  settlement,"  and  called 
their  bargains  "square." 


THE    QUAKER    COLONIES. 


233 


CHAPTER  XII. 

THE  QUAKER  COLONIES. 

ALL  through  the  history  of  our  colonies  we  read 
of  the  journeyings  and  the  preachings  of  a  religi 
ous  people  who  called  themselves  members  of  the 
Society  of  Friends. 

They  believed  in  mild  and  simple  living,  with 
out  war,  without  churches  and  paid  ministers  and 
without  nearly  all  of  the  customs  then  common 
in  Europe  and  America  to  mark  the  differences 
between  upper  and  lower  classes  of  people.  In 
Europe  and  in  nearly  all  the  American  colonies 
the  Friends  were  hated  for  these  simple  ideas,  and 
for  the  wild,  fanatical  way  they  first  preached 
them  in  the  streets  or  anywhere  that  they  could 
find  listeners.  From  one  of  their  queer  ways, 
known  as  "  quaking,"  they  were  disrespectfully 
called  Quakers.  Even  in  the  colonies,  where  re 
ligious  freedom  was  promised  to  all  settlers,  the 
Quakers  were  made  uncomfortable  by  the  others, 
whether  they  were  Puritans,  Churchmen  or 
Catholics. 


234  THE   COLONIES. 

GEORGE    FOX    AND    HIS    FOLLOWERS. 

The  first  great  Quaker  leader  was  Greorge  Fox, 
"  a  deep-hearted  man,  full  of  religious  fervor.  He 
caught  up  the  ideas  around  him,  expressed  them 
in  vigorous  speech,  and  made  them  respected  by 
his  heroic  suffering.  Tall  of  stature,  with  pierc- 


THE  COMFORTABLE  KITCHEN  OF  A  FRIEND  WHO  FOUND  A  HOME  IN  NAVESINK. 

ing  eye,  commanding  presence  and  perfect  cour 
age,  wild,  fanatical  and  superstitious,  he  went  up 
and  down  England  preaching  everywhere,  and 
even  visited  America.  He  was  continually  getting 
into  prison.  He  slept  so  often  in  the  woods,  in 


THE    QUAKER   COLONIES.  235 

barns  or  in  the  cell  of  a  prison  that  he  wore  a  suit 
of  leather  clothes.  By  his  sufferings  and  his 
earnestness  he  was  soon  the  rallying-point  for  the 
Quakers,  and  formed  them  into  a  sect." 

In  those  early  days  these  Friends  did  outlandish 
things — breaking  bottles  and  holding  up  their 
hands,  while  in  solemn  voices  they  gave  warning  of 
doom  to  people  who  would  not  believe  them. 

"  They  suffered  severely  for  these  freaks,  and  it 
is  said  that  there  were  often  more  than  a  thousand 
of  them  in  prison,  and  over  three  hundred  and 
fifty  are  believed  to  have  died  from  prison  hard 
ships.77  But  after  a  regular  sect  was  formed  and 
the  Quakers7  ideas  were  taken  up  and  written  down 
in  books,  as  they  were  by  the  great  scholar,  Robert 
Barclay,  the  members  of  the  society  stopped  the 
ranting  and  "quaking.77  They  became  famous  for 
their  mild  manners,  their  opposition  to  all  sorts  of 
strife,  and  for  living  according  to  the  Golden 
Rule. 

THE    NAVESINK    COLONY. 

When  Lieutenant-Governor  Nicholls  called  for 
colonists  for  Albania,  a  party  of  Friends  obtained 
the  famous  Monmouth  patent  for  a  colony  of  their 
own,  with  the  right  to  settle  and  to  make  laws  over 
a  large  tract  between  the  Raritan  River  and  Sandy 
Hook. 


236  THE    COLONIES. 

The  leader  of  this  company  was  William  Gould- 
ing.  He  and  his  friends  bought  their  land  of  the 
Navesink  tribe  of  Indians.  They  began  their  set 
tlements  at  Shrewsbury  and  Middletown,  soon  after 
Governor  Carteret  took  possession  of  New  Jersey. 
The  Puritans  of  Elizabeth  Town  wished  to  drive 
them-  away  ;  but  Carteret  said  that  the  concessions 
promised  protection  to  Quakers  as  much  as  to  Pu 
ritans.  He  confirmed  their  patent,  and  in  1667 
William  Goulding  and  his  companions  laid  out  the 
first  Quaker  towns  in  the  world. 

The  same  year  they  held  an  assembly  to  make 
their  own  laws  at  Portland  Point,  now  called  the 
Highlands. 

Navesink  soon  became  the  refuge  and  the  meet 
ing-place  for  all  the  Friends  in  America.  The 
peace  and  prosperity  of  these  settlements  drew  so 
many  of  this  persecuted  people  from  Europe  and 
the  other  colonies  that  more  towns  were  soon 
started.  Before  long  some  of  the  leading  Friends 
in  England  obtained  patents  for  still  larger  colo 
nies. 

When  Carteret  called  for  his  first  Assembly  in 
1668,  he  asked  the  Navesirik  people  with  the  others 
to  send  their  delegates.  Although  the  Friends 
had  held  a  legislature  of  their  own,  they  responded 
to  the  call  and  sent  their  representatives  to  Eliza- 


THE    QUAKER    COLONIES.  237 

beth  Town.  But  the  Elizabeth  Town  delegates 
treated  them  so  rudely,  and  managed  everything 
their  own  way  to  such  a  degree,  that  the  Friends 
withdrew,  arid  ordered  their  own  colony  in  their 
own  way.  They  took  no  part  in  the  quarrels  that 
went  on  in  Elizabeth  Town  and  Newark,  and  gave 
no  trouble  to  any  one  except  when  they  were 
ill-used  or  molested.  Every  one  soon  learned  to 
let  them  alone,  but  many  were  envious  because, 
by  hard  working  and  minding  their  own  business, 
they  soon  had  rich  farms  arid  good  trade  with  the 
natives  and  other  colonies.  They  made  such  good 
homes  for  themselves  that  some  rich  men  of  their 
sect  in  England  decided  to  start  other  colonies, 
where  many  more  could  find  a  refuge.  That  was 
the  way  in  which  New  Jersey  happened  to  be  di 
vided  into  the  East  arid  the  West  Provinces. 

WEST    JERSEY. 

John  Fenwick  and  Edward  Byllinge  were  the 
English  Friends  who  bought  Lord  Berkeley's  share 
of  the  palatinate  in  1674,  and  then  agreed  with  Sir 
George  Carteret  to  cut  it  in  two. 

They  called  their  half  the  Province  of  West 
Jersey.  They  formed  a  trust  and  stock  company, 
and  planned  a  government  for  a  great  Friends' 
Colony,  which  lasted  twenty  years. 


238  THE    COLONIES. 

Mr.  Fenwick,  with  his  own  family  and  several 
others,  came  out  at  once  arid  settled  a  place  that 
they  named  Salem,  because  they  loved  peace.  He 
made  friends  with  the  Dutch,  whose  farms  had 
once  laid  under  the  protection  of  the  old  Fort 
Nassau.  He  sought  the  good-will  of  the  Swedes 
at  Swedesborough  on  Raccoon  Creek,  and  in  other 
places  along  the  shore.  Governor  Aridros,  of  New 
York,  pounced  upon  him  with  the  Duke's  taxes  on 
his  trade  and  questions  on  his  right  to  the  land ; 
but  Fenwick  managed  to  take  care  of  his  rights, 
peaceful  Friend  though  he  was. 

HAS  THEE  HEARD  OF  THE  CAPITAL  CALLED 
BYLLINGTON? 

Many  Friends  asked  this  question  of  each  other 
in  the  last  quarter  of  the  17th  century.  Some  in 
Europe,  some  in  the  colonies.  All  of  the  thir 
teen  colonies  were  settled  then  except  Pennsyl 
vania  and  Georgia. 

It  was  a  great  thing  for  these  gentle  and  perse 
cuted  people  to  have  a  colony  with  a  government 
and  a  capital  town  all  their  own. 

Wherir  Governor  Byllinge  and  his  friends  raised 
the  first  great  Quaker  emigration  in  England,  they 
sent  out  four  hundred  people  to  the  Delaware  River, 
in  1677.  These  people,  led  by  Deputy-Governor 


THE   QUAKER   COLONIES. 


239 


Edward  Jennings,  founded  the  capital  of  the 
Colony  on  Chygoes  Island,  sometimes  called  by 
several  other  Indian  names. 

Some   of  you  may  have  "seen  or  heard  of  the 
quiet  old  town  of  Burlington,  as  it  was  afterwards 
called.      You   do   not    know, 
perhaps,   that  it  was  founded 
to  be  the  principal  city  of  the 
Quakers   in    America.      That 
was  five  years  before  William 
Penn    began    his    Colony    of 
Friends  in  Pennsylvania. 

Governor  Andros  tried  to 
tax  this  Colony,  too,  and  made 
them  great  trouble  until  the 
matter  was  stopped  by  the 
courts  of  law  in  England. 

The  settlers  had  no  other 
serious  drawbacks.  The  In 
dians  sent  them  word,  "  You 
are  our  brothers,  and  we  will 
live  like  brothers  with  you  ; " 
and  they  did.  They  taught 

J  J  INDIAN  Bows  AND  ARROWS. 

the     kind     white     men    how 
to  use  their  bows  and  arrows  to  hunt  game,  how 
to  fish  and   how  to  find  and  to  use  many  things 
that  the  Indians  ate  for  food  or  for  medicine.    The 


I 


240  THE    COLONIES. 

region  was  occupied  by  the  tribes  of  the  Leni- 
Lenape  Nation,  or  Delawars.  They  were  a  peace 
ful  people,  who  had  farms  and  home-loving  habits. 
They  had  been  cowed  by  the  Iroquois,  who  won  a 
great  victory  over  them,  and  were  glad  to  have 
white  men  come  among  them. 

It  has  often  been  said  that  no  Quaker  blood  was 
ever  shed  by  an  Indian  ;  but  that  is  not  literally 
true.  There  is  no  doubt  that  the  settlers  on  the 
Delaware,  both  Swedes  and  Quakers,  dealt  fairly 
with  the  Indians,  and  were  well  treated  in  return. 

A  free  representative  government  was  soon 
started.  After  a  few  years,  the  colonists  were 
allowed  to  elect  their  own  Governor.  Their  choice 
for  the  first  popular  Governor  of  West  Jersey  was 
Andrew  Hamilton.  He  was  a  young  Scotch  mer 
chant,  who  played  a  great  part  in  the  events  that 
led  to  the  people's  rights  in  both  the  Jerseys  and 
in  New  York.  He  was  no  relation  of  Alexander 
Hamilton,  the  patriot  of  the  Revolution. 

THE  EAST  JERSEY  ASSOCIATION. 

The  success  of  the  Navesink  Colony,  and  of  the 
larger  settlements  entirely  under  the  Quakers' 
own  government  in  West  Jersey,  made  a  great 
many  Friends  in  all  parts  of  Europe  wish  to  settle 
in  America.  Men  of  means  began  to  think  that  it 


THE    QUAKER    COLONIES. 


241 


would   be   a   good    investment   to    found  another 
Province  for  them. 

So,  after  Sir  George  Carteret's  death,  when  the 
patents  for  East  Jersey  were  put  up  at  auction  in 


AN  OLD  NEW  JERSEY  MILL  AND  FARM  STILL  IN  USE. 


242  THE    COLONIES. 

England,  they  were  bought  in  by  a  number  of 
rich  and  well-known  Englishmen  and  Scotchmen, 
who  were-Quakers  or  friends  of  Quakers.  That 
was  in  1681. 

The  purchasers  hoped  to  build  great  seaport 
cities,  to  open  a  vast  trade,  especially  in  peltries, 
and  to  make  large  fortunes  for  themselves,  while 
they  provided  a  model  Colony  for  persecuted 
Friends.  For  nearly  twenty  years  they  built  up 
this  refuge.  Presbyterians  and  other  persecuted 
people  joined  them.  But  they  never  built  the 
great  seaport  cities,  and  they  never  made  any  for 
tunes  out  of  East  Jersey. 

THE  aUAKER  CAPITAL  AT  PERTH  AMBOY. 

If  you  should  sometime  cross  the  ferry  from 
the  southwestern  end  of  Staten  Island,  or  in  some 
shallow  vessel  sail  up  the  Raritan  Bay  to  Perth 
Amboy,  you  may  think  of  the  Earl  of  Perth,  who 
was  Lord  High  Chancellor  of  Scotland  in  Charles 
II. 7s  time.  It  was  for  this  noble  gentleman  that 
the  pretty  little  town  of  Perth  Amboy  was 
named. 

At  the  time  it  was  founded, — in  1683, — the 
Earl  and  Lord  Neill  Campbell,  William  Penn 
and  many  others  thought  that  the  city  of  Perth, 
on  the  point  that  the  Indians  called  Amboy,  would 


THE    QUAKERS.  243 

some  day  be  a  greater  seaport  than  New  York. 
They  had  not  taken  the  soundings,  which  would 
have  told  them  that  the  waters  thereabouts  carry 
but  moderate-sized  vessels  at  high  tide,  while  the 
waters  about  New  York  have  many  miles  of  an 
chorage  for  the  largest  vessels  at  all  tides. 

Governor  Carteret  yielded  his  office  with  cour 
tesy,  but  the  Elizabeth  Town  settlers  had  no  wel 
come  for  the  new  Proprietor's  officer.  Two  Quaker 
Governors  in  four  years  failed  to  make  a  success 
of  the  Colony  or  the  capital.  Friends  who  came 
over  to  settle  preferred  to  go  where  all  the  people 
were  of  their  own  Society.  They  went  either  to 
West  Jersey  or  to  the  new  Friends'  Colony  in 
Pennsylvania,  which  was  founded  by  William 
Penn,-  about  this  time. 

SCOTCH  PRESBYTERIANS  RULE  EAST  JERSEY. 

When  the  Duke  of  York  became  King  James  II. 
in  1685,  the  Scotch  Presbyterians  fell  under  his 
displeasure.  Many  of  them  had  to  leave  the  old 
country  for  their  lives.  Lord  Neill  Campbell  was 
one  of  them.  His  friends  of  the  East  Jersey  As 
sociation  hastily  made  him  Acting-governor  of 
their  Province,  and  helped  him,  with  a  great  com 
pany  of  others,  to  escape  James  II. 's  terrible  "  kill 
ing  time,'7  under  Mackenzie  and  Claverhouse, 


244  THE    COLONIES. 

which  is  one  of  the  blackest  spots  on  the  history 
of  England. 

Perhaps  you  have  heard  that  New  Jersey  is 
sometimes  called  the  cradle  of  the  Presbyterian 
faith  in  America.  Did  you  know  that  the  Pres 
byterians  came  fleeing  from  their  homes  in  Eng 
land  arid  Scotland,  sometimes  with  only  the  clothes 
on  their  backs  ? 

When  Lord  Neill  Campbell  was  able  to  go  home 
to  his  wife  and  family,  he  left  the  Province  in  charge 
of  Andrew  Hamilton — that  same  young  merchant 
from  Edinburgh  who  was  the  first  popular  Gover 
nor  of  West  Jersey.  Hamilton  remained  at  the 
head  of  the  Province  of  East  Jersey  nearly  all  the 
time,  till  the  end  of  the  Proprietors'  government. 

For  a  short  time  the  Jerseys  were  part  of  the 
Dominion  of  New  England,  and  many  of  the  people 
were  in  favor  of  Leisler's  rebellion,  although  few 
took  part  in  it.  The  Dominion  fell  to  pieces  when 
James  II.  was  obliged  to  run  away  from  his 
throne,  and  the  Proprietors7  government  was  set 
up  once  more.  Some  of  the  people  were  still  much 
against  it,  and  refused  to  pay  their  rents,  small  as 
they  were.  This  went  on  during  all  of  the  reign 
of  William  and  Mary ;  but  after  Queen  Anne  took 
the  throne,  the  Proprietors  were  wearied  into  hand 
ing  the  government  over  to  the  Crown. 


THE    QUAKERS.  245 

THE  ROYAL  PROVINCE  OF  NEW  JERSEY. 

In  1702,  when  good  Queen  Anne  wore  the 
crown,  East  Jersey  and  West  Jersey  were  united 
under  one  government  as  a  Royal  Province.  The 
Proprietors  kept  their  rights  to  land  and  trade. 
Their  heirs  hold  the  claims  to  this  clay,  arid  still 
have  their  regular  meetings,  although  more,  per 
haps,  for  pleasure  than  for  business. 

As  a  Royal  Province  the  New  Jersey  people  had 
their  own  Assembly,  but  for  severity-five  years 
and  more  they  seldom  had  a  governor  of  their  own. 
Usually  they  were  under  the  Governors  of  JSTew 
York,  who  gave  them  but  little  attention  except 
when  they  wanted  their  salaries.  They  had  fine 
houses  in  the  Province,  usually  at  one  of  the  capi 
tals.  The  western  capital  was  Burlington.  The 
eastern  capital  was  either  Perth  Arnboy  or  Eliza 
beth  Town  ;  arid  great  was  the  rivalry  between 
the  two.  The  Assembly  met  first  at  one,  then  at 
the  other. 

The  people  soon  found  that  the  Royal  Govern 
ment  was  much  more  strict  than  the  government 
under  the  Proprietors.  They  had  less  liberty  about 
making  their  own  laws,  and  were  forced  to  pay 
much  more  toward  the  government.  It  was  hard 
for  them  to  learn  when  they  were  well  off.  Their 
history  is  a  sorry  tale  of  quarrels  and  of  making 


246 


THE    COLONIES. 


laws    that  were   vetoed  by  the   Governor  or  the 
Crown. 

AN  UNHAPPY  PEOPLE. 

Under  the  free-trade  laws  of  the  Proprietors, 
the  people  of  these  well-placed  seaports  had  a  lively 
business,  with  cargoes  coming  and  going  all  the 
time.  Sometimes  forty  vessels  were  in  one  harbor 
at  a  time — which  was  "brisk  trade "  for  those  days. 


A  POOR  VILLAGE  NEAR  THE  SKA. 


But  under  the  Crown  the  Province  was  heavily 
taxed  and  denied  free-trade.  The  colonists  soon 
lost  spirit,  and  weeks  went  by  with  no  vessels  and 
no  cargoes  for  any  if  they  did  come.  With  forests 
of  valuable  timber  all  about  tlfem  and  natural 
ship-yards  on  their  shores,  they  owned  but  one 
vessel,  and  that  only  a  sloop.  Some  of  them  lived 
in  poor  villages  near  the  sea.  Their  ports  became 
pirates'  nests.  Their  farms  were  rich,  but  the 


THE    QUAKERS.  247 

farmers  were  not  willing  to  dig  and  hoe  for  them 
selves.  The  land  holders  who  were  able  to  do  so 
bought  as  many  negroes  as  they  could  possibly 
pay  for,  and  every  well-to-do  family  along  the  coast 
turned  over  their  housework  and  their  farm- work 
to  slaves.  An  old  record  says  :  "The  whole  Prov 
ince  was  filled  with  murmurs  and  complaints.  .  .  . 
They  were  forced  to  get  money  (to  pay  the  Royal 
officers  salaries)  on  ye  most  desperate  terms  .  .  . 
and  very  many  there  was  yl  sold  good  milch  cowes 
to  raise  six  shillings.'7 


248  THE    COLONIES. 


CHAPTER  XIII. 

THE  GREATEST  QUAKER  COLONY. 

THE  third  and  greatest  of  all  the  Quaker  Colonies 
was  neighbor  to  West  Jersey.  It  was  planted  on 
the  opposite  bank  of  the  Delaware  River,  near  the 
farms  of  the  Swedes  and  Dutch  who  had  settled 
about  Printz  Hall.  These  Friends  arrived  six 
years  after  the  first  company  took  possession  of 
West  Jersey. 

Some  of  you  know  the  name  of  the  great  new 
Colony  without  being  told.  It  was  Pennsylvania. 
The  first  party  of  these  Friends  came  out  in  the 
winter  of  1681.  There  were  three  ship-loads,  and 
all  suffered  from  the  weather.  Yet  they  passed  by 
some  of  the  settlements  of  the  Dutch,  the  Swedes 
and  the  West  Jersey  Quakers  to  begin  a  tow^i  of 
their  own  at  Upland,  now  Chester,  between  what 
was  left  of  the  Swedish  towns  of  Christina  and  New 
Grotheborof.  The  weather  was  so  cold  that  at  first 

O 

they  lived  in  caves,  which  they  dug  for  themselves 
in  the  river-banks.  The  caves  remained  for  many 
years  after  the  colonists  had  houses.  What  fine 


THE    GREATEST    QUAKER    COLONY.  249 

places  they  were  for  boys  to  play,  and  for  smug 
glers  to  hide  ! 

The  colonists7  houses  were  not  log  huts,  nor 
cabins  of  Indian  mats,  such  as  the  first  settlers 
built  in  the  early  days.  They  were  a  pretty  little 
row  of  English  houses,  of  heavy  frames  filled  in  by 
brick. 

The  next  year  several  hundred  other  Friends 
arrived  with  the  Proprietor  of  the  Colony,  William 
Penn. 

THE  COLONY'S  ROYAL  GODFATHER. 

You  have  often  heard  the  story,  perhaps,  of  the 
founding  of  Pennsylvania.  King  Charles  II.  was 
deeply  in  debt  to  the  great  Admiral  Penn,  who  did 
much  to  restore  the  King  to  the  throne  which  his 
father  had  lost.  The  Admiral's  son,  William  Penn, 
was  a  popular  young  gentleman  in  England.  He 
had  character,  learning  and  fine  manners.  He 
was  in  favor  at  court,  because  of  his  father's  import 
ance  and  his  own  attractions.  When  he  joined  the 
despised  Society  of  Friends  he  was  put  in  prison 
and  suffered  with  the  others  of  his  faith  ;  but  he 
did  not  lose  his  high  standing  altogether.  He 
took  part  in  every  great  movement  for  the  poor 
Quakers,  and  induced  many  rich  men  to  help 
them. 


250  THE    COLONIES. 

He  owned  shares  in  the  Province  of  West  Jersey, 
and  was  a  member  of  the  East  Jersey  association. 
He  openly  declared  his  belief  in  religious  freedom, 
and  in  allowing  colonists  to  govern  themselves. 

O  c5 

King  Charles  did  not  believe  in  either  ;  yet  when 
Penn  asked  him  to  pay  the  Admiral's  debt  by  giv 
ing  the  son  a  lar^e  tract  of  land  in  America  for 

O  O 

another  Quaker  colony,  the  King  granted  the  re 
quest  at  once.  His  Majesty  gave  Penn  a  province 
on  the  South  River,  which  he  called  the  Delaware  ; 
making  it  up  by  coolly  giving  away  pieces  of 
Maryland,  New  York,  and  Connecticut.  He  called 
it  Pennsylvania, — Penn's  Woods, — in  honor  of  the 
Admiral.  William  said  he  "feared  les.t  it  be 
looked  on  as  vanity  in  me."  He  wished  to  call  the 
country  New  Wales,  or  Sylvania  ;  but  the  King 
said  :  "No,  I  am  godfather  to  the  territory,  and 
will  bestow  its  name."  He  asked  Penn  to  give  him 
two  beaver-skins  a  year  arid  one-fifth  of  all  the 
gold  and  silver  he  mined. 

THE  PROPRIETOR  AND  THE  COLONISTS. 

When  Penn  came  to  the  Delaware  in  1682,  he 
brought  plans  to  build  the  beautiful  town  of  Phil 
adelphia.  The  name  means  the  "City  of  Broth 
erly  Love."  It  expressed  the  spirit  that  Penn 
desired  for  the  Colony,  He  chose  for  his  city  the 


THE    GREATEST    QUAKER    COLONY.  251 

peninsula  between  the  Schuylkill  and  the  Dela 
ware  rivers.  He  bought  it  of  the  Swedes,  who  had 
bought  it  of  the  Indians.  He  began  to  build  not 
far  from  where  "the  huge  and  energetic  Governor 
Printz"  had  built  Printz  Hall  and  New  Gotheborg 
forty  years  before.  Penn  did  riot  know  it,  per 
haps  ;  but  this  land  was  outside  of  his  own  prov 
ince  and  within  Lord  Baltimore's  grant  for  Mary 
land.  The  town  was  laid  out  in  regular  squares, 
on  the  convenient  plan  of  the  ancient  city  of 
Babylon.  Some  say  to  this  day,  it  is  the  most 
beautiful  city  in  America. 

"I  wish,"  said  Penn,  "to  make  this  capital  a 
faire  and  greene  country  towne." 

Perm  told  his  people  that  he  had  the  King's 
charter  to  give  them  a  government  under  their 
own  laws,  which  he  would  help  them  to  frame  for 
the  good  of  all.  The  Province  was  especially  for 
Quakers,  but  safety  was  promised  to  people  of 
nearly  all  religions.  All  white  men,  and  all  red 
men,  too,  were  to  have  equal  justice. 

When  the  colonists  accepted  Penn's  generous 
promises,  they  agreed  to  settle  his  province  and 
pay  him  the  rent  he  asked  for  his  land.  It  was  so 
small  a  rent  that  the  land  was  almost  a  gift,  yet 
the  people  soon  refused  to  pay  it.  After  all  Penn 
did  for  them,  he  had  more  trouble  than  pleasure 


252 


THE    COLONIES. 


in  his  colony,  and  was  broken-hearted  and  bank 
rupt  when  he  died  in  England  at 
the  time  the  Colony  was  about 
thirty-five  years  old. 

THE  INDIANS  OF  PENNSYLVANIA. 

A  short  time  before  Penri  left 
England  to  visit  Pennsylvania,  he 
paid  his  respects  to  the  King. 

"It  will  not  be  long,"  said 
Charles  II,  "before  I  hear  that 
you  have  gone  into  the  savages' 
war -kettle.  What  is  to  prevent 
it?" 

"Their  own  inner  light,"  said 
Penn.  "  Moreover,  as  I  intend 
equitably  to  buy  their  lands,  I 
shall  not  be  molested." 

"Buy  their  lands!  Why,  is 
not  the  whole  land  mine  ?  " 

"No,  your  Majesty;  we  have 
no  right  to  their  lands.  They  are 
the  original  occupants  of  the  soil." 

"  What  !  Have  I  not  the  right 
of  discovery  ? " 

"  Well,  just  suppose  that  a  canoe 
f  savages  should,  by  some 


THE  GREATEST  QUAKER  COLONY. 


253 


accident,  discover  Great  Britain.     Would  you  va 
cate  or  sell  ? " 

The  King  was  astonished 
at  such  a  view  of  the  sav 
ages7  rights.  Yet  that  was 
Penri's  principle  in  all  his 
dealings  with  them.  As 
soon  as  his  colonists  arrived, 
they  told  the  Leni-Lenape 
Indians,  who  held  the  coun 
try,  that  their  Proprietor 
would  deal  fairly  with  them. 
The  strangers  obtained  the 
sachems'  permission  to  stay 
and  build  their  villages. 

When  Penn  came  he  met 
the  sachems  in  a  great  coun 
cil,  paid  them  for  their  land, 
and  made  a  treaty  by  which 
their  rights  were  respected 
as  well  as  those  of  the  Eng 
lish. 

Penn  reported  that  he  said 
to  the  sachems  :  "I  will  not 
call  you  children,  for  parents 
sometimes  chide  their  chil 
dren  tOO  Severely  ;  nor  broth-  JNDIAN  WAMPUM-WORK,  FINISHED 


254  THE    COLONIES. 

ers  only,  for  brothers  differ.  The  friendship  be 
tween  you  and  me  I  will  not  compare  to  a  chain  ; 
for  that  rain  might  rust  or  the  falling  tree  might 
break.  We  are  the  same  as  if  one  man's  body 
might  be  divided  into  two  parts  :  we  are  all  one 
flesh  and  blood."  The  Indians  accepted  this 
friendly  speech,  saying,  in  reply:  "We  will  live 
in  love  with  William  Penn  and  his  children  as 
long  as  the  sun  and  moon  shall  endure." 

The  treaty  was  kept  for  more  than  half  a  cen 
tury.  It  is  said  that  the  courts  of  Pennsylvania 
were  the  only  courts  in  all  the  Colonies  where  the 
word  of  an  Indian  was  as  good  as  that  of  a  white 
man. 

Penn's  treaty  was  made  under  a  great  elm-tree, 
where  the  Leni-Lenapes  often  met  for  their  coun 
cils.  They  called  it  Sakimaxing,  the  "Place  of 
Kings."  Penri  attended  other  meetings,  sat  with 
them  on  the  ground,  ate  with  them  of  their  roasted 
acorns  and  hominy.  When  the  sachems  and  war 
riors  began  to  walk  about  in  one  of  their  ceremonies, 
Penn  joined  the  file.  This  pleased  them  so  much 
that  they  began  to  show  him  how  they  jumped,  much 
as  boys  do  when  they  are  "getting  acquainted." 
The  good  Quaker  shared  the  sport.  Much  to  the 
red  men's  surprise,  the  dignified  paleface  "sprang 
tip  and  beat  them  all."  Penn  visited  them  as  a 


THE    GREATEST    QUAKER    COLONY.  255 

friend  and  enjoyed  the  simple  fare  they  offered 
him,  while,  for  his  part,  he  entertained  them  in  his 
own  house  with  the  lavish  hospitality  of  a  rich 
English  gentleman.  ^ 

THE  PENNSYLVANIA  TERRITORIES. 

Penn  soon  discovered  that  the  King's  grant  had 
no  water-front  on  Delaware  Bay.  He  then  ob 
tained  a  special  grant  from  the  Duke  of  York  to 
the  strip  of  South  Bay  country,  which  had  already 
been  under  three  governments. 

The  new  Proprietor  was  welcomed  by  the  quiet 
farmers  of  New  Castle,  Christina,  Tinicum  and 
Wicacoa,  on  which  part  of  Philadelphia  now 
stands.  Both  Swedes  and  Dutch  willingly  agreed 
to  Penn's  liberal  government,  when  he  offered 
it  to  them  on  his  first  visit.  He  laid  their 
county  off  into  three  counties,  often  called  the 
"lower  counties"  of  Pennsylvania.  It  was  also 
called  the  "Pennsylvania  Territories,"  or  "Dela 
ware  Hundreds."  The  King's  grant  was  always 
called  "The  Province." 

Lord  Baltimore  and  Penn  had  a  long  and  bitter 
dispute  over  the  boundary  ;  they  sent  many  letters 
to  each  other  ;  they  held  a  few  formal  meetings  ; 
there  was  hard  feeling  and  hot  words.  But  at 
length  Penn  succeeded  in  securing  a  good  water- 


256  THE    COLONIES. 

front  for  his  province  ;  but  the  peninsula  of  New 
Jersey  still  shut  him  in  from  the  open  sea. 

By  that  time,  the  Territories  had  insisted  on 
having  a  government  of  their  own.  In  1691 
Penn  «:ave  it  to  them,  much  against  his  will.  But 

J->  O 

the  country  west  of  their  narrow  strip  was  finally 
divided  between  Maryland  and  Pennsylvania. 

After  a  few  years  the  Territories  were  reunited 
to  the  Province  for  about  ten  years.  Then,  in 
1703,  they  were  again  separated,  and  set  up  as 
the  Province  of  Delaware.  Even  then  they  had 
the  same  governor  as  Pennsylvania. 

WHO  SETTLED  PENN'S  WOODS? 

None  of  the  Thirteen  Colonies  were  settled  so 
quickly,  and  with  so  many  people  of  different 
countries  and  different  religions,  as  Pennsylvania. 
Within  four  years  Philadelphia  had  six  hundred 
houses,  " large  and  well-built,  with  cellars,"  and 
surrounded  with  gardens.  By  the  time  the  chil 
dren  of  the  first-comers  were  grown  up,  the  capi 
tal  had  become  "a  noble  and  beautiful  city"  of 
11  above  two  thousand  houses,  and  most  of  them 
stately  and  of  brick,  generally  three  stories  high, 
after  the  mode  in  London.'' 

Other  towns  were  settled  in  different  places. 
Near  Philadelphia,  a  large  company  of  thrifty 


THE    GREATEST    QUAKER    COLONY. 


257 


SHOES,  NEARLY  Two  CENTURIES  OLD, 

ONCE  WORN  BY  A  COLONIST  FROM 

THE  GERMAN  PALATINATE. 


workmen  and  farmers  built  Germantown.     There 

were  over  twenty  thousand  in  the  Province  when 

the    Proprietor    made    his  second    visit   in    1699. 

The    colonists  had  almost 

none    of    the    hard    times 

of  the  settlers  of  the  first 

colonies  ;  and  before  many 

years     Pennsylvania    had 

more  people  and  trade  and 

wealth    than    New    York. 

It  was  almost  as  great  as 

Virginia. 

o 

The  people  were  Eng 
lish,  Welsh,  Scotch,  Irish, 
Dutch,  Swedes  and  Germans.  Families  of  the 
same  peoples  settled  in  other  colonies,  but  many 
of  them  went  to  Pennsylvania  first  arid  in  the 
greatest  numbers,  making  a  deep  impression  on 
the  life  of  the  Province.  For  years  "the  Germans 
were  pouring  into  the  Colony  by  thousands,  and 
the  Scotch-Irish  by  hundreds,  and  going  off  into 
the  wilderness  to  live  by  themselves,  leaving  the 
Quakers  in  undisturbed  control  of  politics.  At 
the  same  time  the  Church  of  England  people  were 
also  gradually  increasing,"  and  others  were  add 
ing  themselves  to  the  great  body  of  the  colonists. 

Some  of  them  wished  to  set  up'separate  colonies 


258  THE    COLONIES. 

within  the  Province.  Nearly  all  of  them  were  op 
posed  to  each  other  on  one  question  or  another— 
forming  different  parties,  and  often  stirring*  up 
strife.  Many  of  their  differences  were  on  religion. 
There  were  many  separate  sects,  and  each  man  felt 
strongly  that  his  belief  was  the  right  one.  In 
those  days, 'you  know,  people  allowed  their  religious 
opinions  to  control  their  lives  in  almost  every 
matter.  Penn  and  a  few  others  were  beginning 
to  show  the  world  that  people  should  not  allow 
their  churches  to  control  their  governments,  nor 
their  governments  to  be  guided  by  their  churches. 

THE  PENNSYLVANIA  FRIENDS. 

The  Friends  who  came  to  Pennsylvania  were  a 
very  different  set  of  people  from  those  who,  thirty 
years  before,  ranted  and  "quaked"  and  made 
themselves  a  nuisance  in  the  streets  of  every  place 
they  visited.  The  Pennsylvania  Friends  were  quiet, 
strong  and  modest,  like  the  plain  drab  or  brown 
clothes  they  wore.  Their  rules  forbade  everything 
that  would  prevent  them  from  keeping  quiet  minds. 
Neither  children  nor  grown  folks  were  allowed 
any  sorts  of  games  or  sports.  Balls,  theatres,  even 
novels,  poetry  and  music  were  forbidden,  because 
they  excited  the  mind,  and  if  the  mind  was  excited 
it  could  not  be  guided  by  the  "inward  light'7 


THE  GREATEST  QUAKER  COLONY.      259 

which  they  believed  should  rule  all  their  actions. 
They  were  bound  always  to  tell  the  truth,  so  they 
would  not  take  an  oath.  Of  course  they  would  not 
form  militia  companies  nor  fight.  u  They  always 
had  schools,  and  made  a  point  that  every  child 
should  be  taught,  and  they  were  particularly 
careful  in  giving  instruction  to  the  poor.  But 
reading,  writing  and  arithmetic  were  enough. 
They  disapproved  of  scholarship." 

QUAKER  MEETINGS. 

In  every  village  or  settlement,  the  Friends  met 
regularly  for  worship  and  for  village  affairs.  The 
men  and  women  sat  apart,  and  no  one  spoke  until 
he  or  she  felt  "  moved  to  utterance."  There  was 
no  minister  and  no  music.  Sometimes  no  .one 
would  speak  ;  and  all  would  go  out  of  the  meeting 
house  without  a  word.  Each  of  the  village  meet 
ings  sent  delegates  to  some  monthly  meeting,  and 
each  monthly  meeting  sent  delegates  to  a  quar 
terly  meeting,  while  the  quarterlies  sent  delegates 
to  yearly  meetings,  where  all  the  Friends  in  the 
country  were  represented. 

These  Quaker  assemblies  had  no  presiding  offi 
cer,  and  no  question  was  put  to  vote.  "The  clerk 
or  secretary  watched  the  discussion,  and  framed  a 
resolution  which  seemed  to  him  to  be  the  sense  of 


260  THE    COLONIES. 

the  meeting.  If  he  failed  to  judge  aright,  the 
debate  went  on,  and  the  resolution  was  refrained 
by  the  clerk,  and  this  went  on  until  the  sense  of 
the  meeting  had  been  obtained." 

HOW  PENNSYLVANIA  WAS  GOVERNED. 

The  government  which  Penn  helped  the  people 
to  frame  was  a  liberal  one.  Every  settler  was  a 
voter  if  he  took  up  land  for  himself  arid  paid  his 
taxes.  The  Proprietor  named  the  Governor.  Some 
times,  when  he  was  in  the  country,  he  took  the 
Governor's  duty  on  his  own  shoulders.  The  people 
chose  the  members  of  the  Governor's  Council  and 
the  deputies  for  the  Assembly  ;  but  all  the  affairs 
of  the  Province  were  in  the  hands  of  the  Friends. 
They  were  the  largest  portion  of  the  settlers.  The 
Province  was  planned  for  them,  and  they  con 
trolled  it  for  nearly  a  hundred  years. 

"  A  very  important  point  to  be  noticed  in  the 
history  of  Pennsylvania  is  the  gradual  but  sure  arid 
steady  way  in  which  the  Quakers  developed  the  lib 
erty  of  the  Province  .  .  .  step  by  step  and  year  by 
year,  without  rebellions,  revolutions,  or  violence  of 
any  kind,  but  there  were  no  backward  steps.  It 
was  accomplished  by  continual  yearly  disputes 
with  the  Deputy-Governor  and  Proprietors  on  all 
sorts  of  questions,  involving  great  constitutional 


THE  GREATEST  QUAKER  COLONY.       261 

principles  of  which  the  sturdy  colonists  never  lost 
sight.77 

With  ' '  patience  and  persistence  .  .  .  they  wor 
ried  and  worried  over  these  problems,"  turned 
"  every  trifling-  circumstance  into  an  advantage/' 
till  "the  resistance  of  King,  Proprietor  and  Gov 
ernor  slowly  yielding  before  their  determined 
purpose." 

HOW  PENN  LOST  AND  REGAINED  HIS  PROVINCE. 

After  Penn  set  up  his  government  and  laid  out 
Philadelphia,  he  was  obliged  to  return  to  Eng 
land.  As  you  know,  all  of  the  colonies  suffered 
from  the  bad  times  in  the  mother  country,  "after 
Charles  II.  died  and  his  brother,  James  II. ,  was 
King  for  three  dreadful  years,  until  the  indignant 
people  forced  him  to  leave  the  kingdom  in  the 
revolution  of  1688.  His  daughter,  Mary,  and  her 
husband,  the  Prince  of  Orange,  were  called  to  the 
throne.  The  Prince  was  crowned  Kino;  William 

v3 

III.  These  events  had  many  serious  results  in  the 
Colonies  ;  but  no  colony  suffered  from  them  so 
sorely  as  Pennsylvania.  Because  Penn  had  been 
a  devoted  courtier  to  Charles  II.  and  James  II.,  he 
was  accused  of  trying  to  work  against  the  new 
sovereigns.  Some  said  that  he  was  in  a  plot  to 
put  James  II.  on  the  throne  again. 


262  THE   COLONIES. 

While  Penn  was  under  these  troubles  in  Eng 
land,  the  colonists  were  unruly.  The  Friends  did 
not  always  show  brotherly  love  to  each  other,  nor 
to  the  settlers  of  different  religions.  The  other 
settlers  were  often  angry  at  this,  and  complained 
to  England  because  the  Friends  did  not  think  it 
right  to  form  militia  companies  or  to  take  their 
oath,  according  to  the  old  custom,  in  all  law 
business.  Then  Penn's  enemies  in  England  in 
duced  the  court  to  deprive  him  of  the  government 
of  the  Province.  That  was  after  he  had  given 
the  Territories  their  own  government.  Altogether 
these  difficulties  lasted  a  dozen  years.  At  length 
Penn  proved  that  the  charges  against  him  were 
false,  and  his  government  was  returned  to  him. 
That  was  in  1694. 

A  few  years  afterwards  he  sailed  for  Pennsyl 
vania  with  his  family,  intending  to  remain  there 
the  rest  of  his  life.  Within  about  two  years  he 
was  obliged  to  go  back  to  England, — to  more  trou 
ble, — and  he  never  saw  his  Province  again.  When 
he  died  he  left  it  to  his  wife  and  younger  sons, 
John,  Thomas,  and  Richard  Penn.  They  and 
their  children  were  proprietors  of  the  government 
as  well  as  the  country  until  the  Revolution — the 
only  one  of  the  Proprietary  Provinces  that  re 
mained. 


IN    THE    NORTH.  2G3 


CHAPTER  XIV. 

IN  THE  NORTH. 

THE  lives  of  the  colonists  who  settled  our  north 
erly  shores  were  so  different  from  those  in  the 
south  that  •  it  is  hard  to  remember  that  most  of 
them  were  people  of  the  same  nation  settling  the 
same  country.  Yet  once  New  England  was  merely 
North  Virginia,  and  the  settlers  there  had  simply 
left  the  old  Established  Church  of  England,  and 
given  up  their  blind  belief  in  the  rights  of  Kings, 
while  the  Southern  planters  had  not. 

The  other  great  differences  were  caused  mostly 
by  the  colder  climate,  the  less  fruitful  soil,  by  the 
many  bays  and  rivers  that  were  full  of  fish,  and  by 
the  abundance  of  good  timber  and  the  convenient 
places  for  ship-building.  In  the  North  as  in  the 
South,  Englishmen  first  planted  and  shaped  the  life 
of  our  colonists  ;  while  the  Middle  Colonies  were 
begun  by  people  of  other  nations  with  a  few  Eng 
lish  among  them.  As  years  went,  on  these  people 
of  other  nations  did  not  spread  to  the  Northern 
Colonies  as  they  did  to  the  South. 


264  THE    COLONIES. 

THE  NEW  ENGLAND  FISHERIES. 

Long  before  there  were  any  settlements  on  our 
coast,  the  fishing  towns  of  England  were  sending 
six  hundred  vessels  in  June  to  the  fisheries  of  the 
"  Maine  Lande,"  which  were  said  to  be  better  than 
those  of  New  Foundland.  These  vessels  went  back 
in  the  Fall  with  over  twenty-five  thousand  dollars 
each,  as  we  reckon  money,  and  two-thirds  of  it 
was  often  clear  profit.  The  principal  stations  for 
these  vessels  were  at  Monhegan  Island,  and  at 
the  Isles  of  Shoals,  which  lie  off  the  mouth  of  the 
Piscataqua  River.  These  last  were  then  called 
Smith's  Islands.  Out  of  all  his  discoveries  of  the 
New  England  coast,  Captain  Smith  chose  this  wild 
region  to  bear  his  name. 

Fishermen  of  many  nations  went  to  these  islands 
year  after  year.  The  small  harbors  were  crowded 
with  their  widely  different  vessels. 

The  shores  of  the  islands  were  crowded  with 
rude  stages  for  drying  fish,  such  as  are  still  used 
in  New  Foundland.  They  were  large  floating 
platforms,  covered  with  racks,  where  the  fish  were 
dried  in  the  sun.  At  the  shore  end  they  were 
roofed  over,  so  as  to  make  an  open  shed,  where 
the  fish  were  split  and  salted.  The  cod  about 
Smiths'  Island  were  said  to  be  about  twice  as 
heavy  as  those  of  the  New  Foundland  Banks. 


IN    THE    NORTH. 


265 


In  sheltered  places  on  the  islands  the  fishermen 
built  rude  cabins  of  rough-hewn  logs  and  of 
boughs  and  mats  made  with  the  help  of  the 
Indians.  About  one-third  of  each  crew  lived 
ashore  in  these  huts,  in  order  to  dry  and  cure  the 


A  MODERN  FISH-HOUSE,  WITH  RUDE  STAGES  FOR  DRYING  FISH,  SUCH  AS 

WERE  SET  UP  IN  NEW  ENGLAND  NEARLY  THREE   CENTURIES  AGO. 

fish,  while  the  larger  portion  of  the  crew  remained 
on  the  vessels  to  fish. 

The  fortunes  made  in  the  fisheries  of  the  Gulf  of 
Maine  by  men  who  came  over  from  Europe  had 


266  THE    COLONIES. 

much  to  do  with  the  coming1  of  the  great  colonies 
which  settled  Massachusetts  Bay  and  Connecticut, 
and  everything  to  do  with  the  settlement  of  what 
are  now  the  States  of  Maine  and  New  Hampshire. 

THE  GODFATHERS  OF  NEW  ENGLAND. 

Have  you  ever  heard  of  Sir  P'erdinando  Gorges, 
Chief  Justice  Popham  and  the  other  gentlemen  of 
Devonshire  who  were  leaders  in  the  North  Vir 
ginia  Company  and  afterwards  in  the  Council  for 
New  England  ?  They  were  commonly  called  the 
Plymouth  Council,  because  they  met  in  Plymouth, 
as  the  proprietors  of  Virginia  were  called  the  Lon 
don  Council  because  they  met  in  London. 

The  Plymouth  Council  existed  in  the  early  part 
of  the  reign  of  King  James  I.  They  had  patents 
to  all  the  northern  half  of  the  continent.  Of  late 
years,  old  records  have  been  found  which  show 
that  they  were  the  godfathers  of  New  England. 
They  spent  large  fortunes  to  open  the  way  for  the 
settlers  of  the  country.  Their  voyagers  explored 
and  mapped  and  named  the  land.  Their  colonists 
were  the  first  Englishmen  to  plant  settlements,  and 
to  take  fortified  possession  of  the  coast  in  defiance 
of  the  French  claims.  They  were  also  the  first  to 
open  up  English  trade  in  the  fisheries,  in  the  pel 
tries  gathered  by  the  Indians,  and  in  lumber  from 


IN    THE    NORTH.  267 

"the  most  magnificent  white  pines  in  the  world, 
from  which  all  the  ships  of  Europe  might  be 
supplied  with  masts  forever." 

The  bold  and  beautiful  eastern  coast  had  no  ^ 
large  colonies  until  many  years  after  the  great 
plantations  of  New  England  were  made  from  Mas 
sachusetts  Bay  to  New  Haven.  Yet  it  was  on  this  ^ 
rugged  shore  and  its  islands  that  most  of  the  first 
efforts  were  made  to  colonize  North  Virginia. 
There  were  begun  ship-building  and  the  great 
lumber  trade  to  supply  masts  and  timbers  for  the 
navies  of  Europe.  There  the  English  fishermen 
and  peltry-traders  set  up  the  stations  which  were 
the  beginnings  of  new  colonies. 


'to  to 

PEMAQUID. 


One  of  these  early  settlements  "on  ye  maine- 
lande  "  was  made  the  year  that  Jamestown  was 
planted  in  Virginia.  In  the  summer  of  1607,  a 
colony  was  sent  out  by  Chief  Justice  Popharn, 
under  Captain  Raleigh  Gilbert  and  Captain 
George  Popharn.  They  built  the  pinnace  "Vir 
ginia  "  near  the  mouth  of  the  Kennebec  River, 
now  famous  for  the  ship-yards  of  Bath.  That 
was  the  first  ship-building  in  New  England. 
This  company  explored  the  harbors  of  what  they 
called  the  Sagadahoc  River,  probably  the  Kenne- 


208 


THE    COLONIES. 


bee.  They  looked  for  gold  and  silver  mines. 
Then,  going  farther  east  on  the  peninsula  of 
Pemaquid,  they  built  Fort  St.  George,  or  Fort 
Pophain,  and  mounted  it  with  twelve  guns.  They 

also  built  a  church, 
a  storehouse  a  n  d 
some  dwellings. 

During  the  win 
ter  this  industrious 
company  s  u  if  e  r  e  d 
horribly  from  the 
cold.  No  mines 
were  found  ;  the 
storehouse  was 
burned  ;  and  one  of 
their  brave  young 
leaders,  George  Pop- 
ham,  died.  A  ship 
from  England  came 
to  them  with  sup 
plies  ;  but  it  brought 

the  sad  news  that  Chief  Justice  Popham  was  dead. 
The  company  was  so  discouraged  that  they  forced 
the  captain  to  take  them  home.  They  declared 
that  Englishmen  could  not  live  in  that  climate  in 
winter.  Some  say  that  this  was  the  end  of  the  set 
tlement  at  Fort  Popham.  Others  show  proof  that 


IN  A  SHIPYARD.    BATH,  NOWADAYS. 


IN    THE    NORTH. 


269 


the  Chief  Justice's  son,  Sir  Francis,  never  allowed 
Pemaquid  to  be  abandoned.  He  kept  an  agent  there, 
and  sent  traders  up  the  rivers  and  along  the  coast, 
so  that  the  French  in  Canada  complained  that  the 
English  showed  a  desire  to  be  masters  of  the 

o 

country. 

Captain  John  Smith  visited  the  settlement  six 
years  after  Gilbert  and  his  colony  returned  to 
England.  Smith  said  that  he  saw  the  fort  which  Sir 
Francis  Popham's  people  had  used  during  many 
years  for  lumber  and  furs,  and  that  they  still 
monopolized  the  trade.  Others,  also,  say  that  the 
place  was  never  given  up,  and  that  it  was  the  first 
permanent  plantation  in  New  England. 

Afterwards  Sir  Ferdinando  Gorges  hired  men, 
"at  large  expense/7  to  spend  the  winter  on  this 
wild  coast.  Richard  Vines,  a  highly  respectable 
man,  is  supposed  to  have  passed  one  winter  at  the 
mouth  of  the  Saco  River,  during  a  great  plague 
among  the  Indians, — perhaps  that  of  1616-17. 
Vines  proved  that  Englishmen  could  live  on  this 
coast  during  the  winter.  Vines  and  John  Oldham 
afterwards  had  a  patent  to  Biddeford,  on  that 
river.  Several  scattering  plantations  were  begun 
in  the  year  following.  So  you  see  settlements 
were  made  in  New  England  many  years  before 
the  Pilgrims  landed.  You  may  see  on  the  map 


270  THE    COLONIES. 

where  some  of  them  were  made,  but  no  one  knows 
about  all  of  them.  No  doubt  they  were  made  by 
hardy,  daring  men,  who  had  many  strange  adven 
tures  that  we  should  like  to  hear  all  about;  but 
there  was  no  one  to  write  their  stories. 

THE  DOMINION  OF  NEW  ENGLAND. 

After  Captain  John  Smith  returned  with  his  map 
and  his  descriptions  of  the  vast  coast  of  North  Vir 
ginia,  Prince  Charles  named  the  region  New  Eng 
land.  A  few  years  later,  in  1620,  King  James  I. 
gave  a  new  charter  to  Gorges  and  thirty-nine 
others,  "noblemen,  knights  and  gentlemen/' 
They  were  styled  "The  Council  Established  at 
Plymouth,  in  the  County  of  Devon,  for  planting, 
ruling,  ordering  and  governing  New  England  in 
America."  Their  Dominion  of  New  England  was 
the  entire  country  from  ocean  to  ocean,  between 
the  fortieth  and  forty-eighth  parallels.  The  pat 
entees  "judged'7  that  they  owned  the  continent 
from  the  Hudson  River  to  the  St.  Lawrence  River. 
Their  claims  in  America  were  serious  matters  in 
England.  The  Proprietors  had  to  fight  for  their 
rights  the  rest  of  their  lives,  and  their  children 
and  grandchildren  did  the  same<after  them. 

The  Council  elected  Sir  Ferdinarido  Gorges  as 
Governor-General  over  the  Dominion.  Affairs  in 


IN    THE    NORTH.  271 

England  prevented  him  from  coining  to  this  coun 
try,  but  he  sent  one  Lieutenant- Governor  after 
another  as  long  as  he  lived.  They  usually  were 
sent  directly  to  one  of  the  settlements  in  the  Gulf 
of  Maine,  where  they  had  their  hands  full  with  the 
fisheries  and  peltry-trade.  Not  one  of  them  ever 
took  general  charge  of  the  New  England  Colonies. 
They  sometimes  helped  other  companies  of  settlers, 
and  never  wronged  them  ;  yet,  because  Gorges 
was  a  Kingsrnan  and  a  Churchman,  the  Pilgrim 
colonists  hated  the  good  gentleman's  name,  ignored 
his  rights  whenever  they  could,  and  feared  his 
coming  as  they  feared  a  plague,  until  they  heard 
of  his  death. 

LIEUTENANT-GOVERNOR  ROBERT  GORGES  AT 
NEW  PLYMOUTH. 

Sir  Ferdinando's  first  Lieutenant-Governor  was 
his  son  Robert.  He  came  in  1623,  landing  at  New 
Plymouth,  where  he  was  most  unwelcome.  He 
came  to  fill  the  honorable  post  of  Governor  with 
some  such  dignity  and  state  as  his  father  filled  the 
post  of  Military  Governor  in  Plymouth,  England. 
He  brought  servants  to  set  up  a  great  estate  ;  but 
when  he  saw  how  wild  the  country  was,  he  was 
glad  to  let  them  make  the  most  of  such  shelter  as 
he  found  for  them  at  Wessagusset,  where  a  planta- 


272  THE    COLONIES. 

tion  had  been  begun  and  given  up  by  the  colony 
of  a  London  merchant  named  Weston. 

This  was  about  three  years  after  the  settlement 
was  made  at  New  Plymouth  by  the  religious  Eng 
lish  families  who  had  fled  to  Holland  from  perse 
cution  in  England,  and  then  had  fled  to  America 
from  the  hard  life  in  Holland.  They  were  the  last 
people  in  the  world  that  Gorges  arid  his  Church 
man  friends  would  have  wished  to  begin  to  colo 
nize  the  country  ;  but  they  were  better  than  no 
English  colonists,  and  when  the  Council  were  told 
that  the  poor,  distressed  Pilgrims  had  begun  their 
settlement  at  New  Plymouth,  they  said  the  wan 
derers  might  stay  there  ;  they  even  gave  them 
patents  to  fish  and  trade  on  the  Kennebec  River, 
where  one  of  the  Pilgrims'  fort-houses  stands  to 
this  day. 

The  Lieutenant- Governor — Gorges — was  sent 
over,  with  Francis  West  as  Admiral  of  New  Eng 
land  and  a  Church  of  England  clergyman.  But 
none  of  those  high  officers  found  much  to  do  in 
New  Plymouth,  and  they  soon  left  it,  to  the  Pil 
grims'  delight. 

OTHER  EARLY  SETTLEMENTS. 

Did  you  know  that  the  first  settlements  in  what 
is  now  New  Hampshire  were  begun  on  the  Isle  of 


IN    THE    NORTH. 


273 


Shoals,  before  the  Pilgrims  landed  ?  Some  books 
do  not  mention  it,  but  it  is  true.  The  islands 
were  then  called  Smith's  Isles.  "These  harbors 
must  have  sheltered  large  'floating  colonies  of  fish 
ermen,  summer  after  summer.  Sometimes  a  dozen 
ships  were  there,  each  of  them  having  about  fifty 
men "  ;  some  were  from  England,  some  from 


FISHING  WITH  A  SEINE  AT  NIGHT. 

other  countries.  The  shores  were  dotted  with 
"little  rude  cabins  of  rough-hewn  logs  or  of 
lighter  boughs  and  mats  fashioned  with  the  help 
of  the  Indians.'7  All  were  busy  preparing  and 
drying  the  fish  brought  in  by  the  men,  who  spent 
night  and  day  on  the  vessels  and  in  their  little 


274  THE   COLONIES. 

boats  fishing  with  large  nets,  called  seines,  and 
with  hook  arid  line.  The  small  harbor  of  Smith's 
Isles  was  overcrowded  for  many  years,  until  other 
stations  were  established  in  the  neighborhood. 

One  of  these  stations,  or  "plantations/7  was  the 
first  settlement  on  the  mainland  of  what  is  now 
the  Granite  State.  It  was  made  on  Odiorne's 
Point,  Little  Harbor,  in  what  is  now  the  town  of 
Rye.  Captain  David  Thomson,  the  leader  of  the 
settlement,  had  his  stone  house  ready  just  in  time 
to  receive  visits  from  Lieutenant-Governor  Gorges 
and  Admiral  West,  after  they  left  the  little  log  cabin 
hamlet  of  New  Plymouth.  They  sailed  to  Smith's 
Isles  first,  then  to  the  hamlet  of  ;'Pannaway" 
at  Odiorne  Point.  The  distinguished  visitors  were 
feasted  with  fresh  fish  and  entertained  with  the 
best  the  place  afforded  by  Captain  David  Thom 
son.  Afterwards  he  went  to  Massachusetts  Bay, 
and  settled  on  what  is  still  called  Thomson's 
Island,  where  hundreds  of  poor  boys  have  the 
best  sort  of  good  times  while  receiving  excellent 
education  in  the  Farm  School. 

Several  miles  up  the  Piscataqua  River,  at  the 
fording-place  called  by  the  Indians  Cocheco,  and 
by  the  English  Hilton's  Point,  was  another  settle 
ment,  the  beginning  of  Dover.  That  was  made 
by  two  brothers  named  Hilton,  fishmongers  of 


IN    THE    NORTH.  275 

London.  On  the  coast,  farther  eastward,  was 
Pemaquid,  and  ten  miles  arid  more  off  the  coast 
was  the  largest  of  all  the  New  England  fishing- 
stations  on  the  island  of  Monhegan. 

Lieutenant-Governor  Gorges  found  nothing  to 
do  among  the  rough,  hardworking  people  of  these 
poor  hamlets,  so  he  returned  to  England.  Ad 
miral  West  tried  to  obey  the  orders  he  had  re 
ceived  from  the  Council  for  New  England  to  col 
lect  fines  of  all  the  men  who  were  fishing  in  these 
broad  waters  without  a  license.  He  might  as  well 
have  tried  to  tax  the  fish  in  the  sea  ;  so  he  gave  it 
up  and  went  to  Virginia,  where  he  had  plenty  of 
better  work  to  do. 

.  HOW  THE  COUNCIL  CAME  TO  AN  END. 

At  length  King  Charles  I.  wished  to  have  the 
whole  region  of  the  Dominion  of  New  England 
placed  under  the  government  of  the  Crown,  as 
Virginia  had  been.  The  Council  had  dwindled 
from  forty  to  twelve  "  Noblemen,  Knights  and 
Gentlemen,"  who  were  willing  to  give  up  their 
claims  to  the  government  and  trade  of  the  coun 
try,  although  they  expected  to  remain  landlords, 
with  rights  to  collect  rents  of  settlers  and  to  sell 
any  part  of  the  territory. 

In  the  spring  of  1635,  the  Council  met  for  the 


276  THE    COLONIES. 

last  time.  Taking  their  map,  they  laid  off  their 
great  Dominion  into  twelve  plots — one  for  each  of 
them.  The  land  then  became  the  Royal  Dominion 
of  New  England.  It  was  supposed  to  extend 
from  New  France  to  the  Delaware  Bay  and  the 
plantation  of  Maryland,  which  had  been  granted 
to  Lord  Baltimore  a  few  years  before.  As  you 
know,  England  always  denied  that  the  Dutch  had 
any  right  to  settle  the  country,  and  refused  to 
admit  that  they  had  any  just  claim  to  the  Province 
they  called  New  Netherland. 

Some  of  the  most  powerful  men  of  old  England 
were  determined  to  place  the  whole  of  New  Eng 
land  under  one  government  of  their  own  making. 
But,  except  for  a  short  time,  the  Colonies,  both 
large  and  small,  managed  their  own  affairs.  Most 
of  the  New  Englanders  were  actually  under  one 
General-Governor.  That  was  only  during  a  few 
years,  when  they  were  subject  to  King  James 
II.  7s  Governor,  Andros  (long  after  the  Plymouth 
Council  and  Gorges  had  passed  away).  They 
drove  that  Governor-General  out  of  office  and  out 
of  the  country,  as  you  will  read  in  the  Chapter  of 
Rebellions. 

NOVA  SCOTIA. 

In  the  early  days,  the  English  insisted  that 
New  England  extended  to  the  St,  Lawrence  River, 


IN    THE    NORTH.  277 

in  spite  of  the  French  claims  that  New  France  ex 
tended  to  the  Kennebec  River.  One  of  the  first 
of  the  Council's  patents  gave  to  Sir  William  Alex 
ander  the  narrow  peninsula  which  was  called  Nova 
Scotia  by  King  James  I.  of  England,  who  was 
Kino-  James  YL  of  Scotland  before  he  took  the 

o 

English  throne. 

The  French  called  this  region  their  Province  of 
Acadie.  For  nearly  twenty  years  the  French  had 
had  one  settlement  or  another  in  their  Acadie. 
Once  the  trader  and  fisherman,  Thomas  Argall 
from  Yirginia,  swooped  down  upon  them  like  a 
human  hawk.  He  destroyed  their  settlement  and 
wiped  out  every  trace  of  their  claim  ;  but  after  he 
was  gone,  other  Frenchmen  rebuilt  the  little  ham 
let  of  Port  Royal,  where  Annapolis  now  stands, 
and  made  new  settlements  in  several  places.  They 
were  strong  enough  to  prevent  Sir  William  Alex 
ander  from  taking  the  peninsula  when  he  tried  to 
plant  a  colony  and  set  up  his  Province  of  Nova 
Scotia.  A  few  Englishmen  and  Scotchmen  of  his 
colony  were  allowed  to  go  in  after  a  time  and 
mingle  with  the  French.  They  built  low,  thatched 
huts,  diked  the  meadows  to  keep  out  the  sea,  and 
planted  farms  which  yielded  rich  harvests. 

The  English  were  never  content  to  let  the 
French  have  this  country.  For  nearly  a  century 


278  THE   COLONIES. 

they  tried  in  vain  to  get  it  and  hold  it.  Six  times 
they  captured  it  or  some  part  of  it,  but  were  obliged 
to  return  their  conquest  each  time,  until,  in  Queen 
Anne's  reign,  France  ceded  the  peninsula  of  Nova 
Scotia  to  England  in  the  treaty  of  Utrecht  in  1713. 

THE  PROVINCE  OF  LYGONIA. 

Another  of  the  New  England  Council's  famous 
provinces  of  those  early  times  was  laid  off  next  to 
Nova  Scotia,  That  was  the  vast,  unknown  region 
of  "ye  Maine  Lande  "  and  all  "Ye  Isles  "  from  the 
Gulf  and  River  St.  Lawrence  to  the  neighborhood 
of  Massachusetts  Bay.  That  was  granted  to  Sir 
Ferdinando  Gorges  and  to  Captain  John  Mason, 
another  great  man  in  New  England  history,  the 
founder  of  the'  Province  of  New  Hampshire. 
Gorges  and  Mason  called  their  magnificent 
province  Lygonia  for  Sir  Ferdinando's  mother, 
who  was  Miss  Cicely  Lygori  before  she  was  mar 
ried. 

The  Proprietors  and  a  number  of  other  rich 
Englishmen  put  a  great  deal  of  money  into  under 
takings  to  build  up  a  vast  peltry-trade  in  this  re 
gion.  Once  they  sent  out  a  fleet  to  conquer  the 
French  in  Canada,  as  England  and  France  were 
then  at  war.  The  commander  of  the  fleet,  Sir 
David  Kirke,  took  all  the  French  trading-posts  of 


IN    THE    NORTH.  279 

Acadie,  besides  the  fortress  of  Quebec,  many  miles 
up  the  river.  They  were  all  important  stations, 
especially  Quebec,  which  was  the  centre  of  the 
greatest  peltry-trade  in  North  America  ;  but  the 
conquest  was  returned  to  France,  because  it  was 
made  after  the  war  in  Europe  was  over.  That  was 
in  1629. 

Then  the  great  Laconia  Company  was  formed,  to 
reach  the  heart  of  the  peltry  country  without 
touching  Canada.  "We  can  do  it  surely,"  said 
Sir  Ferdinando.  "The  Piscataqua  River  must 
flow  from  the  Iroquois  Lake,  and  all  we  need  do 
is  to  build  a  line  of  trading-forts  up  the  Piscata 
qua  to  the  Lake."  He  was  greatly  mistaken. 
The  Company  sent  out  Walter  Neal,  who  was 
also  Lieutenant-General  of  the  Dominion  of  New 
England.  For  three  years  Neal  and  his  men 
labored  through  the  dense  forest  on  the  banks 
of  the  river  and  the  small,  wild  rivulets;  and 
at  the  end  of  that  time  he  declared  that  the 
lake  could  not  be  found  in  the  Province  of 
Lygonia.  The  Company  was  dissolved.  It  had 
done  some  good  service  in  building  up  the  settle 
ment  of  Strawberry  Bank, — the  beginning  of 
Portsmouth, — at  the  mouth  of  the  Piscataqua 
River,  and  in  founding  the  town  of  Kittery, 
Maine. 


IN    THE    NORTH.  281 

The  settlements  and  fishing-stations  on  Smith's 
Isles  had  grown,  too,  until  they  had  as  many  people 
and  as  much  property  under  taxes  as  had  the  Col 
ony  of  New  Plymouth  wlien  it  was  about  fifteen 
years  old.  But  that  was  not  told  by  the  Pilgrims, 
nor  by  the  Massachusetts  writers.  They  cried  down 
everything  belonging  to  Gorges  and  Mason.  They 
would  not  even  use  Smith's  name  on  the  islands, 
but  called  them  the  Shoal  Islands,  or  the  Isles  of 
Shoals. 


282  THE   COLONIES. 


CHAPTEE  XV. 

GREAT  UNDERTAKINGS. 

SCHOLARS  are  slowly  finding  records  of  the  great 
undertakings  that  were  planned  for  this  vast  and 
still  sparsely  settled  country  of  Maine.  If  all  of 
Gorges'  and  Mason's  papers  are  found,  they  will 
tell  many  interesting  stories  of  how  certain  great 
Englishmen  gave  their  fortunes  and  many  heroic 
settlers  gave  their  lives  to  "  open  up"  this  region. 

We  do  not  know  how  many  white  people  there 
were  along1  the  coast  at  this  time.  There  were 

c? 

several,  and  most  of  them  were  gathered  in  small 
groups  of  half  a  dozen  cabins,  set  up  near  an  en- 
cainpmerit  of  friendly  Indians.  Some  of  them 
married  squaws.  There  were  few  white  women 
there  for  many  years.  Some  of  the  old  writers  say 
that  the  hamlets  were  small  arid  bare,  the  people 
were  very  poor  and  rough.  They  could  not  read 
nor  write,  but  signed  their  names  with  their  marks. 
They  were  u  terrors  "  to  unfriendly  Indians  and  to 
white  men,  and  knew  no  law  but  their  own  ;  but 
the  writers  who  told  these  tales  were  sometimes 


GREAT    UNDERTAKINGS.  283 

Massachusetts  men.  The  Massachusetts  men  were 
so  bitterly  opposed  to  Sir  Ferdinando  Georges  and 
Captain  Mason  that  good  Puritans  among  them 
would  stretch  any  statement  until  it  was  long 
enough  to  hang  the  rights  of  those  loyal  King's 
men. 

If  the  "Down-east"  settlers  were  rough,  and 
had  no  learning  but  that  of  seas  arid  forests,  they 
were  hardy  and  industrious.  They  braved  the 
long,  bitter  winters  and  faced  the  toil  that  made 
them  the  founders  of  many  towns.  They  made 
the  first  "  plantations,7'  as  they  called  them,  at  most 
of  the  interesting  places  where  summer-vacation 
days  are  now  passed  by  thousands  of  Americans 
from  almost  every  State  in  the  Union. 

CAPTAIN  MASON'S  PROVINCE  OF  NEW  HAMPSHIRE. 

When  the  Lygonia  Company  gave  up  trying  to 
find  Lake  Champlairi  at  the  head  of  the  Piscataqua 
River,  Sir  Ferdinando  Gorges  and  Captain  John 
Mason  decided  to  buy  out  the  other  partners  and 
divide  their  great  Province  of  Lygonia.  Captain 
Mason  took  the  westerly  division,  calling  it  the 
Province  of  New  Hampshire  for  Hampshire,  Eng 
land,  of  which  he  was  Military  Governor.  Smith's 
Isles  were  so  important  that  the  Proprietors  kept 
them  in  common  for  a  time,  and  then  divided  them, 


284  THE   COLONIES. 

much  as  they  are  apportioned  to-day,  between  the 
States  of  Maine  and  New  Hampshire. 

Captain  Mason  owned  the  Piscataqua  settlements, 
which  were  then  a  dozen  years  old.  There  was 
a  fort  on  Great  Island  opposite  Strawberry  Bank, 
which  was  a  busy  colony  of  nearly  eighty  peo 
ple,  one  quarter  of  them  women.  They  had  an 
English  Church,  a  blockhouse  and  a  large  supply 
of  cannon  and  small  arms.  There  were  wharves, 
sheds  and  fish-houses,  with  nearly  fifty  fishing- 
boats,  also  two  sawmills  and  potash-works  under 
the  care  of  several  Danes,  sent  over  by  Cap 
tain  Mason.  There  were  forty  horses,  about 
three  hundred  head  of  cattle,  sheep  and  goats, 
and  so  many  Danish  oxen  that  Captain  Mason's 
governor  or  manager  took  one  hundred  of  them 
to  Boston,  where  he  sold  them  for  a  lar^e 

o 

price. 

Under  such  a  wise  and  generous  proprietor  as 
Mason,  Strawberry  Bank  and  Dover  (which  lay 
some  distance  up  the  river)  would  have  grown 
rapidly  into  a  large  and  prosperous  province  ;  but 
Captain  Mason  died  a  few  months  after  New  Hamp 
shire  was  laid  off,  in  1635. 

Captain  Mason's  widow  had  not  the  money  for 
the  expense  of  managing  the  Province,  so  the  peo 
ple  were  allowed  to  take  charge  of  their  own  affairs. 


GREAT    UNDERTAKINGS.  285 

Each  settlement  governed  itself  for  a  while,  some 
times  poorly  and  with  much  quarreling. 

Meantime  two  new  towns  were  planted  without 
the  Proprietors7  knowledge.  At  the  Falls  of  the 
Piscataqua,  on  a  branch  of  that  river,  Exeter  was 
built  by  some  men  who  were  driven  out  of  Massa 
chusetts  for  their  religious  beliefs.  A  short  time 
later  Massachusetts  laid  out  the  town  of  Hampton 
and  settled  fifty  or  sixty  people  there,  to  show  that 
the  great  Colony  claimed  that  place  as  within  its 
boundaries.  After  a  short  time  the  four  towns 
numbered  about  four  thousand  people,  mostly  fish 
ermen,  sawyers,  trappers  and  traders.  They  had 
above  twenty  sawmills  on  the  Piscataqua,  and  cut 
"excellent  masts77  and  "  great  store  of  pipe- 
staves.77  They  were  hard-working  and  poor,  and 
had  great  difficulties  to  overcome  ;  but  they  stead 
ily  grew  strong.  Many  joined  them  and  enlarged 
the  settlements,  but  no  new  towns  were  laid  out 
for  about  fifty  years,  because  the  people  were  afraid 
of  the  claims  of  Captain  Mason7s  grandson. 

SIB  FEBDINANDO    GORGES'   PROVINCE   OF   MAINE. 

Sir  Ferdinando7s  share  in  the  grand  division 
with  Captain  Mason  was  from  the  Piscataqua 
River  to  the  "River  of  Canada,77  as  he  called  the 
St.  Lawrence.  At  first  he  called  this  New  Sorner- 


286 


THE    COLONIES. 


setshire;  but  when  the  Council  was  broken  up, 
King  Charles  I.  gave  him  a  new  charter  to  the 
Province  of  Maine.  Some  say  that  the  name 
came  from  the  "  Maine  Lande,"  the  term  by 
which  sailors  and  fishermen  used  to  distinguish  the 
coast  of  the  continent  from  Greenland,  Labra 
dor,  Nova  Scotia  and  the  islands  well  known  for 
their  fisheries.  Others  say  that  it  was  named  by 
Gorges  in  compliment  to  the  wife  of  Charles  I., 
Queen  Henrietta  Maria,  who  was  the  daughter  of 
King  Henry  IV.  of  France.  It  is  said  that  she 
once  owned  the  old  French  Province  of  Maine. 
She  was  the  royal  lady  for  whom  Maryland  was 
named. 

Sir  Ferdinando  sent  out  many  hardy  fishermen, 
lumbermen  and  traders,  who  lived  alone  or  made 
settlements  along  the  coast  all  the  way  from  Pema- 
quid  to  the  mouth  of  the  Piscataqua  River. 
Richard  Vines  was  the  best  known  of  all  these 
men.  George  Cleves  was  another  leader.  There 
were  many  more  who  made  themselves  loved  or 
feared  by  their  strength  and  skill  in  their  wild  life, 
almost  as  full  of  danger  on  land  as  on  the  sea. 
Some  of  them  soon  built  large,  fortified  houses,  but 
most  of  them  lived  in  mud-plastered  huts.  Every 
man  of  them  had  to  be  a  hero  to  endure  the  severe 
winters  and  the  hard  work  necessary  to  keep  them- 


GREAT    UNDERTAKINGS.  287 

selves  fed  and  warmed,  to  say  nothing  of  the  labor 
of  making  up  the  valuable  cargoes  of  furs,  fish 
and  timber,  to  be  sent  off  in  the  vessels  that  came 
over  from  Europe  every  summer. 

A  CATHEDRAL  CITY  IN  THE  WILDERNESS. 

An  important  settlement  in  those  rough,  early 
days  is  now  the  small  coast  town  of  York,  where 
many  city  children  pass  their  summer  vacations. 
It  was  founded,  about  1623,  for  a  great  cathe 
dral  city  for  the  Church  of  England.  It  was 
named  York,  for  the  famous  city  of  England, 
which  was  to  be  a  sort  of  foster-mother  to  the 
young  plantation  arid  its  church.  Captain  Chris 
topher  Leavett  had  the  King's  order  to  raise 
money  for  the  new  city  and  cathedral  of  York, 
but  he  died  before  his  noble  undertaking  was 
fairly  begun,  and  for  many  years  the  place  was 
a  hamlet,  called  Agamenticus,  from  the  name  of 
the  river  on  which  it  was  built. 

Afterwards,  Sir  Ferdinando  gave  the  people  of 
Agamenticus  a  charter  under  the  name  of  the  City 
of  Georgeana,  making  it  the  capital  of  the  Province 
of  Maine,  and  sending  out  a  Deputy-Governor. 
This  was  the  first  English  city  in  America.  It  was 
chartered  in  1642.  New  Amsterdam,  the  second 
city  in  the  country,  was  founded  ten  years  later. 


288  THE    COLONIES. 

The  Deputy  met  the  settlers  at  Saco, — another 
vacation-place  now, — and  held  a  General  Court  to 
make  laws  and  manage  affairs  in  the  name  of  Sir 
Ferdinando.  One  Deputy-Governor  followed  an 
other,  but  few  of  them  were  willing  to  stay  more 
than  one  winter  in  that  cold  climate.  Richard  Vines 
was  soon  left  in  charge.  Within  a  few  years  the 
settlers  heard  that  the  Puritans  and  Parliament  of 
England  were  at  war  against  Charles  L,  and  that 
Sir  Ferdinando  was  in  prison,  with  many  of  the 
Kind's  friends.  So  the  General  Court  of  Maine 

CT 

ordered  Richard  Vines  to  take  possession  of  all 
the  Proprietor's  goods  and  chattels  and  pay  his 
debts.  But  before  that  time  there  was  a  great 
quarrel,  and  Maine  was  divided. 

GEORGE  CLEVES. 

Gorges  sold  a  strip  of  his  vast  estates  between 
Casco  Bay  arid  Cape  Porpoise  to  some  men  who 
called  it  by  the  name  he  had  first  given  the  whole 
region — Lygonia.  They  sent  out  the  ship  Plough 
with  a  company  to  begin  a  colony.  The  Plough's 
company  had  trouble  with  Richard  Vines,  as 
any  one  did  who  tried  to  take  what  he  believed 
might  belong  to  the  Gorges  family.  They  also 
had  trouble  among  themselves  ;  and  then,  the 
old  record  says,  "they  vanished  aiway."  For  years 


GREAT    UNDERTAKINGS.  289 

no  one  in  Maine  heard  anything  more  of  the 
patents  which  the  Plough's  people  had  claimed  to 
have.  But  George  Cleves  thought  of  them  once 
when  he  was  in  England,  saying  to  himself  that, 
if  he  could  induce  some  one  to  take  up  those 
claims,  a  fortune  might  be  made  out  of  the  set 
tlers  and  the  trade  on  this  territory.  And  if 
he,  George  Cleves,  were  placed  at  the  head  of 
all  the  settlements  on  the  Plough  patents,  he 
would  be  a  greater  man  in  Maine  than  Richard 
Vines. 

Cleves  induced  a  rich  English  lawyer,  Alexan 
der  Rigby,  to  buy  up  the  patents,  which  the 
owners  were  glad  to  sell  for  a  song.  Rigby  sent 
Cleves  back  to  New  England  as  Deputy-President 
of  the  Province  of  Lygonia,  with  authority  to  set 
up  his  government  and  proprietorship  over  all 
the  settlements  from  Saco  to  Casco.  They  were 
among  the  oldest  and  largest  plantations  in  Maine. 
Casco  was  the  beginning1  of  what  was  afterwards 

o  o 

called  Falmouth,  and  is  now  the  City  of  Portland. 

THE  LOYALTY  OF  RICHARD  VINES. 

Richard  Yines  would  riot  consent  to  this.  He 
believed  that  the  Plough  Patent  belonged  to 
the  Gorges  family,  since  it  had  not  been  settled 
by  the  patentees.  He  had  planted  some  of  those 


290  THE    COLONIES. 

places  himself — he  and  John  Oldharn,  the  hardy 
trader  who  braved  many  winters  and  many  quar 
rels  in  New  England  to  die  at  the  hands  of  the  In 
dians  at  last. 

Part  of  the  men  in  the  settlement  took  Yines7  side, 
some  stood  by  Cleves.  Rough,  half-savages  as 
they  were,  these  men  had  hard  feelings  and  hot 
words  over  the  claims  of  the  two  leaders,  and  over 
the  demands  of  this  new  proprietor,  Rigby.  The 
names  of  Rigby  and  the  men  who  fought  over  his 
patents  are  alive  in  that  region  to  this  day. 

Cleves  and  some  of  his  party  appealed  for  aid  to 
the  government  of  the  most  powerful  colony  in  New 
England  ;  that  was  the  General  Court  of  the  Gov 
ernor  and  Company  of  Massachusetts  Bay.  The 
dignified  Puritans  advised  their  restless  neighbors 
to  ''live  peaceably77  till  the  authorities  in  England 
settled  the  matter.  But  the  Massachusetts  men 
began  to  think  that  a  good  way  to  end  the  disputes 
would  be  to  add  the  Maine  regions  to  their  own 
territory,  which  was  fast  becoming  over-crowded. 


CROMWELL'S   ''FOREIGN  PLANTATIONS" 
COMMISSION. 

Vines  and  Cleves  reported  to  their  proprietors 
that  each  was  trying  to  take  the  other's  settle 
ments.  Gorges  and  Rigby,  each  upholding  his 


GREAT    UNDERTAKINGS.  291 

own  Governor,  laid  the  matter  before  the  new  com 
mission  which  Cromwell's  Parliament  had  placed 
in  charge  of  the  "Foreign  Plantations,7'  as  the  Colo 
nies  were  styled. 

The  Parliament  men  soon  decided  against 
Gorges.  They  said  he  had  sold  his  rights  over  the 
land  named  in  the  Plough  Patents,  and  that  Rigby 
had  bought  them.  So  the  government  of  Deputy- 
President  Cleves,  of  Lygonia,  was  fixed-  over  all 
the  settlements  from  Casco  to  Cape  Porpoise, 
cutting  Gorges'  province  in  two. 

The  Province  of  Maine  extended  on  the  west  from 
Cape  Porpoise  to  the  Piscataqua  River  ;  on  the  east 
from  Casco  to  the  Kennebec  River,  The  capital 
seems  to  have  been  held  in  many  places.  Part  of 
the  time  it  was  in  the  city  of  Gorgeana,  as  you 
read  a  few  pages  back.  At  length,  in  1647,  the 
people  had  news  of  the  death  of  their  Proprietor, 
the  devoted  godfather  of  New  England.  The  set 
tlers  waited  two  years  to  hear  from  his  heirs. 
Then  they  formed  a  government  of  their  own  for 
the  Province  of  Maine,  choosing  Mr.  Edward  God 
frey  for  their  Governor. 

A  MUCH-DESIRED   COUNTRY. 

The  Kennebec  River  and  a  broad   strip   of  land 
on  both  sides  of  it  was   claimed  by   the    Pilgrim 


292 


THE   COLONIES. 


Colony  of  New  Plymouth.  Gorges  and  his  friends 
had  given  them  their  patents  a  few  years  after 
they  settled  New  Plymouth,  because  they  had  no 
good  fisheries  at  Cape  Cod.  The  abundant  fish 
and  the  peltries  of  the  Kermebec  were  highly 
prized  by  the  Pilgrims,  and  carefully  'guarded 


THE  PILGRIMS'  FORT-HOUSE  NEAR  THE  KENNEBEC,  BUILT  IN  1754. 

amid  the  claims  of  overlapping  patents  and  chang 
ing  governments. 

Beyond  New  Plymouth's  cherished  territory,  the 
Duke  of  York  claimed  the  old  settlement  and  fort 
of  Pemaquid  and  the  vast  forests  and  waters  to  the 
St.  Croix  River.  When  the  King  and  the  Duke 
sent  officers  to  take  New  Netherland  for  the  Prov- 


GREAT    UNDERTAKINGS.  293 

ince  of  New  York,  they  gave  orders  to  'establish  a 
government  in  this  Maine  country,  making  it  the 
County  of  Cornwall,  in  the  Province  of  New  York. 
All  this  time  the  great  Massachusetts  Bay  Colony 
had  only  one  small  piece  of  this  much-desired 
country,  which  they  had  bought  of  a  man  who  was 
part  owner  in  a  large  tract  known  as  the  Pejebscot 
patent.  But  the  whole  country  was  watched  by 
the  keen  magistrates  of  "The  Bay"  (as  the  Massa 
chusetts  Colony  was  commonly  called),  and  when 
the  proper  time  came  they  took  the  lion's  share. 


294  THE   COLONIES. 


CHAPTEB  XVI 

RIDING  BEHIND  THE   BAY  HORSE. 

AFTER  the  settlers  both  of  Maine  and  New 
Hampshire  had  had  several  years  of  strife  among 
themselves  and  trouble  with  the  Indians,  the  mag 
istrates  of  Massachusetts  sent  officers  among  them 
to  inquire  if  they  would  not  like  to  live  under  the 
protection  of  Massachusetts.  Most  of  them  said 
yes,  and  took  the  oath  of  allegiance  to  the  General 
Court,  which  declared  the  whole  region  two  coun 
ties  of  The  Bay  Colony.  They  were  commonly 
called  the  "  Eastern  Counties."  The  officers  prom 
ised  the  settlers  that  they  should  keep  their  own 
forms  of  worship,  if  they  wished  to,  although  most 
of  them  were  Church  of  England  men,  and  no  one 

c"> 

in  the  Massachusetts  Colony  could  vote  if  he  were 
not  a  member  of  the  Puritan  or  Independent 
Church. 

These  isolated  settlers  were  not  religious  men, 
but  they  were  loyal  to  the  church  of  their  nation. 
They  had  been  their  own  masters  in  all  but  name 
since  they  first  came  to  this  new  country.  Yet,  in 
one  hamlet  after  another,  they  took  the  oath  of 


RIDING    BEHIND    THE    BAY    HORSE.  295 

allegiance  to  Massachusetts.  Most  of  them  felt 
proud  to  be  under  the  protection  of  the  great  Col 
ony  which  numbered  many  rich  and  able  men,  and 
which  was  the  leader  among  all  the  other  colonies 
of  Few  England.  The  settlers  soon  found  that  the 
Massachusetts  magistrates  did  not  interfere  with 
town  affairs,  but  gave  them  courts  of  justice  and 
help  against  the  Indians.  Militia  officers  and  men 
from  The  Bay  assisted  the  settlers  to  train  them 
selves,  to  build  and  fortify  blockhouses  and  to 
make  treaties  with  the  natives.  When  the  Dutch 
and  English  War  broke  out,  a  new  fort  was  built 
on  Great  Island  in  Portsmouth  Harbor,  "at  the 
proper  charges  of  the  towns  of  Dover  and  Ports 
mouth." 

So,  for  several  years,  the  "Eastern  Counties 
rode  comfortably  behind  the  Bay  Horse,7'  until 
Charles  II.  set  up  the  Royal  Province  of  Maine 
and  the  Royal  Province  of  New  Hampshire.  The 
Royal  Province  of  Maine  lasted  scarcely  three 
years,  when  the  Bay  Government  again  sent  offi 
cers  to  take  the  people's  oath  to  the  General  Court. 
The  settlers  of  the  Duke  of  York's  County  of  Corn 
wall  went  over  to  the  Puritans  with  the  others. 
At  length  King  Charles  I.  decided  to  put  an  end 
to  the  question  of  who  should  govern  the  settlers 
in  Maine  by  buying  the  Province  from  Gorges7 


296  THE   COLONIES. 

heirs  ;  but  the  leaders  of  Massachusetts  cut  in 
ahead  of  his  Majesty.  In  1678,  they  bought  the 
whole  vast  region  of  Gorges'  claim  in  "  Ye  Maine 
Lande "  for  what  would  now  be  about  thirty-six 
thousand  dollars.  Twenty  years  later,  when  the 
Bay  and  the  Old  Colony  of  New  Plymouth  were 
united  in  a  Royal  Province,  the  government  was 
extended  over  all  the  "eastern  territory"  except 
New  Hampshire.  For  many  years  it  included 
Nova  Scotia  and  all  the  bitterly-disputed  region 
of  Acadie. 

THE  EASTERN  INDIANS. 

One  of  the  earliest  writers  on  New  England 
says  that  the  first  settlers  of  this  region  were  "a 
terror  to  the  Indians,  who  were  at  that  time  insult 
ing  over  the  poor,  weak  and  unfortunate  planters 
at  Plymouth."  The  Indians  seem  to  have  been  a 
terror  to  them,  also,  for  many  years.  The  records 
are  full  of  the  troubles  of  the  great  Penacooks,  Tar- 
rantines  and  all  the  Abenakis  tribes  along  the  coast. 
No  doubt  the  natives  were  ill-used  and  sorely  pro 
voked  by  the  rough  fishermen,  sawyers,  trappers 
and  traders  who  took  their  land  without  leave,  and 
anything  else  that  they  happened  to  want.  The 
French  influenced  the  savages  to  make  the  most 
of  their  grievances,  and  guided  them  in  constant 


RIDING    BEHIND    THE    BAY    HORSE. 


297 


attacks  upon  the  settlements.  These  attacks  were 
open  when  France  and  England  were  at  war,  covert 
when  they  were  at  peace. 

The  most  general  outbreaks  were  made  after  the 
settlements  were  taken  under  Massachusetts,  when 
regular  militia  companies  were  sent  to  them  from 


INDIAN  WOMAN'S  SNOW-SHOE. 


INDIAN  MAN'S  SNOW-SHOE. 


Boston.  Small  garrisons 
taken  from  these  com 
panies  were  stationed  in 
rough-hewn  blockhouses 
at  different  places  to  pro 
tect  the  settlements.  The  Indians  harassed  them, 
captured,  tortured  and  killed  them  when  they 


INDIAN  CHILD'S  SNOW-SHOE. 


298  THE    COLONIES. 

could,  and  the  militia  kidnapped  the  savages  and 
sold  them  into  slavery. 

If  you  ever  read  the  old  records,  you  will 
find  that  the  authorities  in  Massachusetts  were 
much  agitated  over  these  "eastern  Indians,77  and 
that  two  or  three  of  them  often  made  the  long  sail 
ing  voyage  "  Down-east77  to  induce  the  savages  to 
sign  treaties  of  peace.  Sometimes  the  treaties 
were  kept  ;  often  they  were  broken  almost  before 
wind  and  tide  could  carry  the  Massachusetts  men 
safely  home.  There  were  some  friendly  tribes, 
who  taught  the  white  men  how  to  make  snoe- 
shoes  and  many  other  useful  things. 

THE  ROYAL  PROVINCE  OP  NEW  HAMPSHIRE. 

New  Hampshire  was  the  first  Royal  Province  in 
New  England.  It  was  set  up  by  Charles  II.  in 
1679,  with  the  capital  at  Strawberry  Bank,  then 
renamed  Portsmouth.  "The  most  trusted  and 
honored  men  of  the  Province  were  artfully  selected 
to  make  the  government  acceptable  to  the  people  ; '7 
for  it  was  a  government  ' '  contrived  to  give  a  show 
of  great  popular  liberty,  and  at  the  same  time 
leave  the  King  the  supreme  ruler  of  the  land.77 
There  was  a  President  and  Council  appointed 
by  the  King,  arid  an  Assembly  elected  by  the 
people.  But  when  the  Assembly  made  the  laws 


RIDING    BEHIND    THE    BAY    HORSE.  299 

under  which  they  wished  to  live,  the  King  would 
not  o'ive  his  consent  to  them.  When  this  was  dis- 

o 

covered,  and  when  the  people  learned  that  they  were 
expected  to  support  all  the  officers  the  King  chose 
to  send  them,  there  was  a  hubbub  of  dissatisfaction. 
Moreover,  there  were  Royal  courts  to  carry  out  the 
King's  plans  and  fines  for  this,  that  and  the  other. 

The  first  President  or  Governor  of  the  Province 
was  John  Gutt,  a  loved  and  honored  merchant  of 
Portsmouth.  The  Vice  -  President  was  Richard 
Waldron,  who  was  a  magistrate  of  Dover,  a  major 
of  the  militia,  and  one  of  the  important  men  of 
the  Province  in  all  affairs.  He  was  a  daring 
leader  against  the  Indians,  who  finally  killed  him 
in  revenge  for  a  trick  played  on  them  under  the 
pretence  of  a  sham-fight. 

The  people's  "archbishop  and  chief  justice,  too," 
was  the  eloquent  and  fearless  minister  of  Ports 
mouth,  the  Rev.  Joshua  Moody.  His  brave  resist 
ance  against  the  landlord  and  the  Royal  officers  is 
honored  in  New  Hampshire  to  this  day. 

THE  LANDLORD,  ROBERT  MASON. 

The  Royal  Province  was  established  to  help  Cap 
tain  Mason's  grandson,  Robert,  to  make  the  people 
pay  him  rent.  He  soon  came  over  from  the  mother 
country ;  but  the  people  were  determined  not  to 


300  THE.  COLONIES. 

admit  that  he  had  any  right  to  make  them  pay  for 
the  land  they  had  settled.  He  might  do  what  he 
chose  with  the  land  outside  of  the  four  towns  of 
Strawberry  Bank,  Dover,  Exeter  and  Hampton. 
The  townspeople  would  have  resisted  his  claim,  if  he 
had  presented  it  with  the  utmost  tact  and  thought- 
fulness,  for  the  hardships  they  had  endured  in  mak 
ing  their  settlements.  But  he  pushed  his  demands 
harshly,  cruelly  ;  and  the  people  refused  them  so 
roughly  that  he  was  glad  to  escape  to  England. 

Again  and  again  these  claims  were  pressed. 
The  settlers  always  resisted.  Mason  induced  the 
King  to  send  over  for  Governor  a  hard,  selfish, 
man,  Edward  Cranfield,  who  would  wring  rents 
out  of  the  people  if  any  one  could  do  so.  Mason 
came  with  him,  and  they  induced  the  Deputy- 
Governor,  Walter  Barefoot,  and  a  pack  of  other 
officers  to  try  to  force  the  settlers  to  pay  Mason 
or  lose  their  property.  But  there  was  a  general 
revolt,  and  the  people  sent  an  appeal  to  England. 

The  constables  who  tried  to  collect  the  fines  and 
rents  were  met  by  the  townsmen  with  cudgels. 
In  Exeter  the  women  waited  behind  their  hus 
bands  with  boiling  water  and  red-hot  spits,  in  case 
the  cudgels  failed.  The  marshal  was  run  out  of 
that  town.  At  Hampton  he  was  met  by  another 
crowd,  who  took  his  sword  and  rode  him  on  horse- 


RIDING    BEHIND    THE    BAY    HORSE.  301 

back,  with  his  legs  tied  under  the  horse  and  a  rope 
around  his  neck. 

In  the  midst  of  this,  Governor  Cranfield  ran 
away  from  the  Province  and  took  passage  for  the 
West  Indies,  knowing  that  the  people  were  ready 
to  do  him  harm,  arid  that  the  Lords  of  Trade  in 
England  had  censured  him  to  the  King. 

HARD  TIMES  AND  FEW  SETTLERS. 

When  King  James  II.  took  the  throne,  he  placed 
New  Hampshire  under  his  grand  Dominion  of 
New  England,  ordering  Mason  and  some  of  his 
officers  to  Boston  as  Councillors  in  the  new  gov 
ernment.  There  Mason  died.  The  old  leaders  of 
the  Bay  Colony  rebelled  against  the  King  and  his 
General-Governor  (Andros),  broke  up  the  Domin 
ion,  and  took  New  Hampshire  once  more  under 
their  own  government. 

After  the  new  sovereigns,  William  and  Mary, 
were  seated  on  the  throne  of  England,  in  1688, 
the  Royal  Province  was  established  again,  to  stand 
for  almost  one  hundred  years,  until  it  became  a 
State.  More  than  half  of  that  long  time  the  In 
dians  and  the  French  warfare  harassed  the  people 
day  arid  night.  During  much  of  the  time  the 
people  were  under  the  Governors  of  Massachu 
setts,  with  Lieutenant -Governors  of  their  own. 


302 


THE    COLONIES. 


Sometimes  both  Governor  and  Lieutenant-Gov 
ernor  were  more  interested  in  the  Mason  elaims 
than  in  the  welfare  of  the  colonists. 

In  Queen  Anne's  reign,  the  Province  had  six 
towns — Portsmouth,  Dover,  Exeter,  Hampton,  New 
Castle  and  Kingston  ;  the  last  two  were  very  small 
and  poor.  The  whole  Province  was  driven  to 


INDIAN  YOKE  AND  BUCKETS  FOR  CARRYING  MAPLE  SYRUP. 

great  straits  by  reason  of  the  war.  A  writer  of 
that  day  said  :  "  I  account  New  Hampshire  as  in 
value  of  men,  town  and  acres  of  improvement,  just 
a  tenth  part  of  the  Massachusetts.77  All  the  settle 
ments  were  within  about  fifteen  miles  of  the  mouth 
of  the  Piscataqua  River,  and  numbered  nine  thou- 


RIDING   BEHIND    THE    BAY    HORSE.  303 

sand  souls  at  most,  One-fifth  of  them  were  free 
men  ;  the  rest  were  women,  children,  a  few  white 
servants,  and  about  one  hundred  and  fifty  negro 
slaves.  They  had  some  pleasure  in  their  hard 
lives.  Some  children,  per 
haps,  will  think  that  they 
ought  to  have  been  happy 
because  they  had  all  the 
maple  syrup  they  wanted. 

The     Indians     taught     them  INDIAN  PAN  FOR  HOLDING 

„  MAPLE  SYRUP. 

how  to  take  the  sap  from 

sugar-maple  trees,  and  how  to  make  birch-bark 
vessels  to  hold  it  and  carry  it  to  the  kettles  where 
they  boiled  it. 

PROGRESS  UNDER  THE  WENTWORTHS. 

Wentworth  is  a  great  name  in  New  Hampshire 
to  this  day,  and  it  should  be.  For  nearly  a  hun 
dred  years  -the  little  Piscataqua  settlements  suf 
fered  and  struggled,  till  in  the  reign  of  George  I. 
better  times  came  with  the  first  Lieutenant-Gov- 
ernor  Wentworth. 

John  Wentworth  was  a  grandson  of  one  of  the 
first  settlers.  He  had  grown  up  in  the  Province, 
rising  to  his  place  among  the  leading  sea-captains 
and  merchants.  For  fourteen  years  he  had  served 
his  country  as  well  as  he  could  in  the  Governor's 


304 


RIDING    BEHIND    THE    BAY    HORSE.  305 

Council.     For  a  still   longer  time,  as  Lieutenant- 
Go  vernor,  he  worked  for  New  Hampshire,  until  he 
established  her    prosperity.     The   Governors  who 
had  their  hands  full  in  Massachusetts  seldom  even 
visited  this  province  in  John  Wentworth's  day,  so 
well  he  managed  affairs  without  them.     After  his 
death  the   people   had  a  dreadful  time  for  a  while 
under  Colonel  David  Dunbar,  of  the  British  Army  ; 
but  at  length  good  old  John  Wentworth's  son  Ben- 
ning  was  made  Governor  of  the  Province  by  itself, 
and  also  King  George  II.  7s  Surveyor  of  the  Woods." 
•  For  nearly  thirty  years  Governor  Benning  Went- 
worth  watched   over  New  Hampshire  as   a  father 
watches  over  his  family.     He  had   his  odd  ways ; 
he  called  his  Council  to  meet  him  out  at  his  stately 
mansion  'at   Little   Harbor  ;  he   did   many  things 
that  made   some  people  laugh  and  others  angry  ; 
but  he  was  a  great  Governor  through  those  years 
of  dreadful  French  and   Indian  warfare  described 
in  another  chapter.     He  helped   the  people  defy 
the   claims  of  Mason  and  also   the  claims  of  both 
New  York  and  Massachusetts.  The  larger  provinces 
disputed  New  Hampshire's  right  to  nearly  all  the 
westerly  country,  from  the  valleys  of  the   beau 
tiful    Merrimac    and     Connecticut    rivers    to    the 
rich  Green  Mountain  region  now  the  State  of  Ver 
mont.     Governor  Wentworth  granted  new  west- 


306  THE    COLONIES. 

ern  townships,  and  protected  the  people  who  set 
tled  them.     The  quarrels  were  so  bitter  that  they 


GOVERNOR  JOHN  WBNTWORTH. 


sometimes  were  near  to  open  fight.  After  Ben- 
ning's  time,  his  cousin,  John  Wentworth,  became 
Governor. 


RIDING    BEHIND    THE    BAY    HORSE.  307 

NEW  HAMPSHIRE'S  PROSPERITY. 

Slowly  but  surely  people  increased,  towns  grew, 
and  prosperity  came  to  New  Hampshire  under  the 
Wentworths'  management. 

Most  of  the  men  were  fishermen  or  lumbermen, 
who  worked  in  the  forests  cutting  timber,  making 
masts,  tar,  pitch  and  turpentine,  which  were  sup 
posed  to  be  for  the  Royal  Navy  of  England.  The 
sea-captains  and  merchants  in  this  business  often 
became  rich  men.  The  ships  that  carried  their 
cargoes  to  England  brought  back  linen,  woolen 
goods  and  many  household  things.  Some  of  the 
fish  that  were  caught  and  cured  and  some  of  the 
lumber  were  sent  to  the  West  Indies  in  exchange 
for  sugar,  molasses,  and  wine.  A  few  vessels  took 
the  New'  Hampshire  products  to  Portugal  and 
Italy,  bringing  back  salt  and  other  things.  There 
were  no  manufactures  in  the  Province  until  there 
came  several  Scotch  Presbyterians,  who  in  Crom 
well's  time  had  moved  from  Scotland  to  Ireland 
arid  were  called  Scotch-Irish.  They  came  from 
Londonderry,  Ireland,  arid  settled  on  the  Merrimac 
River,  a  few  miles  below  the  place  where  the  river 
now  runs  the  many  mills  of  Manchester.  There 
they  began  to  grow  flax  and  to  set  up  a  linen  fac 
tory,  spinning  and  weaving  by  hand. 

To  another  party  of  these  Scotch-Irish  Lieuten- 


308  THE    COLONIES. 

ant-Governor  Wentworth  granted  land,  where  they 
built  the  town  of  Londonderry.  These  settlers 
brought  potatoes  with  them  from  Ireland,  and 
started  the  use  of  that  important  vegetable  in 
New  England.  You  have  heard  that  one  of  Sir 
Walter  Ralegh's  voyagers  found  the  potato  in 
Virginia,  and  that  he  planted  it  on  his  estates  in 
Ireland,  where  it  soon  became  the  ehief  food  of 
the  people.  After  nearly  a  century  and  a  half,  it 
was  brought  back  to  the  New  World  to  feed  the 
new  nation  which  had  begun  to  grow  long  after  the 
unfortunate  Sir  Walter's  death — the  very  nation 
he  thought  he  had  only  tried  in  vain  to  start. 


THE    REAL    NEW    ENGLAND.  309 


CHAPTER  XVII. 

THE  HEAL  NEW  ENGLAND. 

WHEN  we  speak  of  the  traits  of  the  New  Eng- 
landers,  we  usually  mean,  not  the  colonists  of  the 
Northern  plantations,  but  the  people  of  the  four 
leading  Colonies  of  Puritans,  or  Independents,  as 
they  called  themselves,  because  they  declared  their 
independence  from  the  Church  of  England.  They 
were  the  four  Colonies  of  New  Plymouth,  Massa 
chusetts  Bay,  Connecticut  and  New  Haven. 

Nearly 'all  of  the  first  settlers  of  these  colonies 
were  pure-blooded  Englishmen.  Most  of  them 
were  well-to-do  farmers  at  home,  such  as  the  Eng 
lish  call  yeomen.  It  was  said  that  God  winnowed 
the  English  nation  to  plant  New  England,  and  that 
the  children  and  children's  children  of  the  New 
England  planters  have  spread  over  one-fifth  of 
the  vast  portion  of  the  continent  now  belonging 
to  the  United  States. 

The  settlers  of  these  four  Independent  Colonies 
established  what  are  known  as  the  Puritan  customs 
of  New  England.  They  founded  the  new  religious 


310  THE    COLONIES. 

sect  which  gradually  became  the  Congregational 
Church. 

THE  PILGRIMS  OF  NEW  PLYMOUTH. 

The   first    "real   New    Englanders"    were    the 
Mayflower's    company   of    English   families,    who 


THE  "  MAYFLOWER.' 


came  from  Holland  in  1621,  and  settled  on  the 
harbor  which  Captain  John  Smith  long  before  had 
named  New  Plymouth.  They  were  formed  into  a 
branch  of  the  large  church  they  left  in  Leyden, 
and  their  simple,  godly  society  was  the  model  for 
the  people  who  planted  the  greater  Colonies  of 


THE    REAL    NEW    ENGLAND.  311 

Massachusetts  and  Connecticut.  You  must  remem 
ber  this,  because  it  was  the  people's  love  for  their 
religion  that  made  them  settle  and  build  up  New 
England. 

The  Pilgrims  governed  their  little  company  by 
the  first  town-meeting  government  in  America, 
which  was  copied  by  their  neighbors  ;  and  The 
Bay,  where  there  were  several  towns,  worked  out 
a  plan  for  all  the  freemen  of  the  towns  to  send 
representatives  for  a  general  government.  The 
Pilgrims  also  held  the  first  "real  New  England 
Thanksgiving,77  and  set  many  of  the  customs 
which  spread  all  over  the  country. 

They  opened  the  "coast  trade77  with  the  fisher 
men  and  settlers  "Down  East,77  in  the  regions 
owned'  by  Sir  Ferdinando  Gorges  and  Captain 
John  Mason,  obtaining  rights  of  their  own  on  the 
Kennebec,  as  you  have  read.  Governor  Bradford, 
Winslow,  Allerton  and  the  other  Pilgrim  leaders 
also  opened  trade  with  all  the  Indians  on  Cape  Cod, 
extending  it  to  Narragansett  Bay  and  the  Connecti 
cut  River  in  rivalry  with  the  Dutch  of  New  Neth- 
erland. 

A  BOY  AT  TOWN-MEETING. 

If  you  had  lived  in  the  old  days,  you  would 
have  been  allowed  to  attend  town-meeting  in  the 
town-meeting  house,  if  you  were  a  boy  in  your 


312  THE    COLONIES. 

teens.  Town  affairs  were  managed  then  much  as 
they  are  managed  to-day  in  New  England  and  in 
the  States  that  have  been  settled  by  New  England 
people. 

Some  of  the  men  were  well-dressed,  some  were 
in  plain  clothes.  All  wore  their  hats.  The  min 
ister  and  a  few  gentlemen  were  called  "  Mr.'7,  but 
most  of  the  men  were  addressed  as  "  Goodman.77 

If  the  town  was  but  just  settled  you  might  have 
seen  the  men  drawing  lots  for  their  house-plots 
and  their  field-plots.  You  would  have  heard  them 
deciding  on  the  brands  that  Goodman  This  and 
Goodman  That  should  have  for  their  cattle,  the 
slits  or  notches  in  the  ears  of  their  sheep  ;  you 
would  have  heard  whose  swine  should  have  a  pink 
stripe  down  their  backs,  whose  a  black  stripe. 
They  voted  on  what  the  town-taxes  should  be  and 
how  they  should  be  expended.  They  chose  their 
treasurer,  their  town-clerk  and  constable,  and  se 
lected  others  (as  many  as  seven,  if  a  large  town), 
who  were  called  their  "selectmen,77  and  who  saw 
that  the  town-money  was  spent  and  all  affairs  were 
carried  out  as  the  men  had  voted. 

Each  man  voted  by  putting  a  kernel  of  corn  in 
the  ballot-box  for  yea,  or  a  bean  for  nay.  When 
the  town  was  formed,  each  man  took  his  oath  of 
allegiance  to  it  and  to  the  government  of  the  Col- 


I 


314  THE    COLONIES. 

ony.  Every  newcomer  took  the  same  oath  before 
he  was  accepted  as  a  townsman  and  allowed  to 
vote. 

Many  matters  about  springs  and  wells,  crops, 
lumber  and  fishing  you  would  have  heard  talked 
over  ;  some  of  them  very  small  matters.  Import 
ant  measures  were  proposed  in  a  long  speech  by 
the  minister  ;  such  as  establishing  a  school  in  the 
town,  or  building  stronger  defenses  against  the 

Indians. 

THE  MEETING-HOUSE. 

The  most  important  building  in  a  New  England 
town  has  always  been  the  meeting-house.  In  it 
were  held  the  town-meetings,  the  Sabbath  and 
week-day  religious  services,  Thanksgiving  -  day 
exercises  and  sometimes  the  public  school,  which 
was  then  always  for  boys — not  girls. 

In  the  early  days,  the  meeting-house  was  often 
a  blockhouse,  built  on  a  hill,  so  that  the  cannon 
on  its  roof  protected  the  town.  It  was  fenced  in 
with  an  acre  or  more  of  ground  by  a  high  palisade 
of  sharp-pointed  logs.  The  windows  of  the  house 
were  covered  with  oiled  paper,  because  the  first 
settlers  could  not  afford  to  import  glass  from 
Europe.  Between  the  windows  hung  the  heads 
of  wolves,  which  the  men  killed  to  protect  their 
domestic  animals.  The  wild  animals  of  this  new 


THE    REAL    NEW    ENGLAND. 


315 


country  were  often  almost  as  serious  enemies  as 
the  Indians. 


THEY  OFTEN  USED  FOOT-STOVES  AT  HOME. 

Within,  the   meeting-house  was   roughly   fin- 


316  THE   COLONIES. 

ished.  The  benches  were  rude  planks  hewn  from 
the  trunks  of  trees.  A  chair,  and  perhaps  a  table, 
stood  at  one  end,  for  the  minister.  There  were  no 
stoves,  except  the  small  foot-stoves  which  people 
carried  with  them  and  which  they  often  used  at 
home. 

THE  PURITAN  SABBATH. 

The  first  day  of  the  week  the  Puritans  were 
particular  to  call  the  Sabbath,  because  Sunday 
was  a  name  used  by  the  early  Pagans  for  the  day 
on  which  they  worshipped  the  Sun.  The  Sabbath 
began  -on  Saturday  at  sundown,  and  was  "kept77 
until  the  next  sundown.  About  nine  o'clock  Sab 
bath  morning  the  village  people  heard  a  drum,  a 
horn  or  conch-shell  calling  every  one  to  meeting. 
If  the  people  were  so  fortunate  as  to  have  a  bell, 
that  was  rung.  Every  one  must  attend  Sabbath 
meeting,  unless  it  was  absolutely  impossible.  The 
tithing-man  fined  that  absentee  who  could  not  give 
good  reason  for  his  absence.  Any  one  who  stayed 
away  from  meeting  a  month  without  good  reason 
was  made  to  stand  in  the  pillory,  sit  in  the  stocks, 
or  was  confined  in  a  wooden  cage.  The  cage,  the 
stocks,  and  the  pillory  usually  stood  near  the  meet 
ing-house. 

If  the  townsmen  wished  to  severely  punish  any 
persons,  men  or  women,  they  placed  them  in  this 


THE    REAL    NEW   ENGLAND. 


317 


disgraceful  confinement  on  a  market-day,  when 
many  people  would  see  them. 

In  the  earliest  days,  the  red  flag  of  England, 
with  the  Cross  of  St.  G-eorge  in  the  corner,  some- 


A  NEW  ENGLAND  WOMAN'S  PUNISHMENT  FOR  TALE-BEARING. 

times  floated  over  the  meeting-house  on  the  Sab 
bath  and  Thanksgiving-days  ;  but  the  New  Eng- 
landers  soon  ceased  to  use  that  flag,  and  after  a 
time  they  made  others  of  their  own. 


318  THE   COLONIES. 

In  some  places  it  was  the  custom  to  have  senti 
nels  in  armor  stand  outside  the  meeting-house 
door.  Many  of  the  men  left  their  muskets  with 
the  sentinel  as  they  entered  the  meeting.  While 
they  sang  their  hymns  from  the  Bay  Psalm  Book, 
and  listened  to  the  long  prayers  and  the  longer 
sermon,  the  guard  stood  outside,  watching  every 
waving  field  of  tall  grass  and  every  tree  in  fear 
that  they  might  be  hiding  Indians,  preparing  to 
surprise  the  town  when  they  knew  that  the  people 
were  at  their  worship. 

In  later  times,  the  people  built  good-sized  and 
substantial  meeting-houses.  They  sent  to  Eng 
land  for  furniture  and  for  large,  well-bound  cop 
ies  of  the  Bible  ;  but  they  still  thought  it  was  not 
right  to  have  any  such  luxury  or  display  as  was 
in  the  Church  of  England.  Some  of  them  would 
not  use  the  word  "church."  Their  services  were 
"meetings,"  and  they  held  them  in  "meeting 
houses." 

In  the  meetings,  families  did  not  sit  together. 
The  old  men  were  by  themselves ;  the  young  men 
were  in  another  place ;  mothers  sat  with  the  little 
children,  and  the  young  women  were  in  separate 
groups,  while  the  boys,  apart  from  all  the  rest,  were 
kept  strictly  in  order  by  the  town  constable.  Each 
constable  had  a  wand  with  a  hare's  foot  on  one 


SOMETIMES  THE  CHIUMIEN  SAT  FACING  THEIR  SERIOUS  PARENTS. 
319 


320  THE   COLONIES. 

end  to  rap  the  boys,  and  a  hare's  tail  on  the  other 
end  to  brush  against  the  women's  foreheads  when 
they  nodded  off  into  a  little  doze. 

In  some  of  the  later  meeting-houses  the  pews 
were  high  arid  square,  with  a  seat  running  all 
around  the  inside,  and  a  whole  family  sat  together. 
The  children  usually  sat  facing  their  stern  and  se 
rious  parents.  The  little  folks7  backs  were  toward 
the  minister,  but  that  did  not  matter,  for  the  pews 
were  so  high  they  could  not  have 'seen  him  any 
way. 

Without  a  fire,  on  narrow,  uncushioned  seats, 
these. good  people  sat  all  the  morning  and  almost 
all  the  afternoon,  having  only  a  lunch  between 
services.  Sometimes  the  minister  had  to  shout 
suddenly  to  waken  them,  during  sermons  that  were 
three  or  four  hours  long.  The  sexton  turned  the 
hour-glass  before  him  every  time  the  sands  ran 
out. 

THE    TOWN    MILITIA. 

In  all  of  the  New  England  colonies  every  able- 
bodied  man  or  boy  from  about  sixteen  years  old 
to  sixty  was  obliged  to  train  in  a  band  for  military 
duty.  Training-days  were  holidays,  when  all  the 
men  and  women  wore  their  best,  and  had  a  general 
out-of-door  party  on  the  town  green  or  common, 


THE    REAL    NEW    ENGLAND.  321 

which   was   usually    in    the    centre    of    the   vil 
lage. 

Many  of  the  men  wore  steel  helmets  and  iron 
breast-plates,  or  cuirasses.  Others  wore  coats  thick 
ly  quilted  with  cotton  wool,  which  turned  the  head 
of  an  Indian  arrow.  Some  carried  swords,  such 
as  that  of  Captain  Myles  Standish,  with  its  un 
known  Oriental  inscription,  now  one  of  the  treas 
ures  of  Plymouth.  At  first  they  carried  muskets 
which  were  fired  by  flint-locks  ;  but  after  a  time 
they  made  match-locks,  which  were  fired  by  a  slow 
match.  Some  had  pikes  ten  feet  long.  Each  man 
had  a  "  rest  "  or  iron  fork  to  be  stuck  in  the  ground 
and  support  his  heavy  weapon.  Round  his  waist 
was  a  belt  or  "  bandoleer,77  holding  a  sword  and  a 
dozen  tin  cartridge-boxes. 

The  people  made  their  new  homes  under  almost 
constant  attacks  by  the  Indians  from  one  quarter 
or  another.  The  New  England  men  attended  to 
their  farms  and  built  up  their  manufactures  and 
trade,  while  they  were  trained  to  be  expert  rifle 
men,  brave  leaders  and  obedient  men,  schooled  to 
drop  their  daily  work,  grasp  their  arms  on  the 
instant  of  alarm.  They  learned  to  move  so  that 
their  heavy  shoes  did  not  creak  and  their  leather 
breeches  did  not  rustle  in  thickets  and  woods,  for 
they  had  to  find  the  enemy  as  well  as  fight  him. 


322 


THE   COLONIES. 


SAYBROOK. 

You  remember  how  the  New  England  Council 
granted  patents  to  different  persons  for  parts  of 
their  dominion.  One  of  these  grants  was  to  a 
larsre  tract  about  the  mouth  of  the  Connecticut 


JOHN  WlNTHROP,   THE  Yoi'NGER. 

Son  of  Governor  Wintlirop,  founder  of  several  towns,  and  the  man  who 
obtained  the  charter  for  the  Commonwealth  of  Connecticut. 

River.  It  was  made  out  to  Lord  Say  and  Sele,  Lord 
Brooke  and  several  others.  About  the  time  that 
The  Bay  towns  decided  to  remove  to  this  valley, 
Lord  Say  and  Sele  and  Lord  Brooke  decided  to 


THE    REAL    NEW    ENGLAND.  323 

send  over  a  colony  of  well-armed  men  with  Lyon 
Gardiner,  an  engineer,  to  set  up  a  military  post  at 
the  entrance  to  the  river.  .They  placed  the  whole 
matter  in  charge  of  John  Wintlirop,  Junior,  a  fine 
young  man,  son  of  the  Governor  of  the  Bay  Colony. 

In  November,  1634,  Lyori  Gardiner  landed 
twenty  men  and  some  cannon  and  shot  at  the 
mouth  of  the  river.  There  he  found  the  arms  of 
the  States-General  of  Holland  nailed  on  a  tree. 
He  tore  them  down  and  mounted  two  guns  on  the; 
site  chosen  for  the  fort,  charging  them  in  the  nick 
of  time  for  a  Dutch  vessel,  which  had  been  sent 
from  New  Amsterdam  to  keep  him  out.  His  fire 
put  the  Dutchmen  about  without  an  attempt  to 
land.  So,  having  saved  his  Proprietors7  claim,  he 
lost  no  time  in  building  a  fort  and  laying  out  a 
settlement,  which  was  named  Say  brook,  in  honor 
of  Lord  Say  arid  Sele  and  Lord  Brooke. 

When  the  Massachusetts  towns  began  to  go  up 
the  river,  young  Winthrop  said  that  they  were 
all  of  the  same  stock  and  the  same  faith,  and  he 
hoped  that  they  would  always  be  good  neighbors. 

Gardiner  welcomed  the  new  corners,  who  made 
the  journey  by  water.  He  invited  them  to  make 
Say  brook  their  resting  -  place  before  going  up 
stream.  He  also  assured  them  that  no  Dutchman 
would  be  allowed  to  follow  them  and  attempt  to 


324 


THE    COLONIES. 


dispute  the  Englishmen's  claim  to  the  river  or  its 
trade.  The  towns  were  built  up  the  quicker  be 
cause  the  fort  was  there  to  aid  arid  protect  them, 
although  there  was  a  Dutch  fort  and  small  settle 
ment  opposite  the  place  chosen  for  Hartford. 
In  one  way  and  another  the  fort  settlers  were 


SAYBROOK  FORT  IN 


linked  with  the  people  of  the  towns  in  their  laws, 
their  trade  and  the  many  things  it  was  necessary  for 
them  to  do  to  protect  their  families  and  their 
farms  from  the  Indians.  When  the  General  Court 
of  Connecticut  undertook  anything  with  the  other 
Puritan  colonies,  Saybrook  was  usually  included, 


THE    REAL    NEW   ENGLAND.  325 

and  after  a  time  the  Colony  bought  the  whole  plan 
tation  from  the  Proprietors  and  made  it  a  part  of 
the  Commonwealth  of  Connecticut. 

THE  CONFEDERATION  OF  NEW  ENGLAND. 

The  first  union  among  the  colonists  was  in  New 
England.  The  first  steps  in  that  union  were  taken 
by  Connecticut.  Old  England  was  then  rumbling 
with  the  troubles  of  the  Puritans  against  the 
Church  and  the  Crown.  The  Puritans  of  New 
England  kept  days  of  fasting  and  prayer  when 
they  heard  that  the  leaders  in  Parliament  had 
come  to  an  open  quarrel  with  the  King. 

Some  of  the  leaders  of  the  Connecticut  Colony 
called  upon  the  men  of  Massachusetts  and  New 
Plymouth  to  consider  that  these  troubles  in  Eng 
land  were  among  the  colonists7  friends,  and  were 
likely  to  go  so  far  that  the  colonists  could  not  look 
to  the  mother  country  for  advice  nor  help.  So  the 
settlers  must  depend  upon  themselves.  Their 
settlements  were  scattered  along  the  coast  and 
great  rivers,  in  the  midst  of  savages,  who  were 
always  at  war  with  each  other  and  suspicious  of  the 
white  men.  As  for  the  New  Eno-landers'  white 

o 

neighbors,  they  were  of  the  French  and  Dutch 
nations,  both  ancient  enemies  of  England. 

For  all  these  reasons  the  Connecticut  men  urged 


326  THE    COLONIES. 

that  some  sort  of  union  be  formed  by  their  Colony, 
Massachusetts,  New  Plymouth  and  Newhaven  (as 
the  name  of  that  Colony  was  written).  At  first 
Massachusetts  and  New  Plymouth  did  not  favor 
the  plan,  but  after  a  few  years  the  four  Colonies 
agreed  that  in  all  Indian  and  foreign  affairs,  and 
in  whatever  matters  affected  them  all,  they  were 
all  to  be  controlled  by  what  they  called  their  Fed 
eral  Commission.  These,  you  see,  were  the  four 
Puritan  Colonies.  They  would  not  admit  the  peo 
ple  of  Maine,  New  Hampshire,  Rhode  Island,  chiefly 
because  they  were  not  of  the  Puritan  religion. 

This  union  was  the  greatest  event  in  the  history 
of  New  England  after  the  settlement.  It  was  an 
act  of  sovereignty  in  which  the  colonists  did  not 
even  make  a  pretence  of  asking  the  consent  or 
sanction  of  the  home  government. 

The  Federal  Commission  was  a  board  of  eight 
men,  all  church-members.  Each  Colony  was  rep 
resented  by  two  of  these  men,  chosen  by  the  Gen 
eral  Assembly.  Their  meetings  were  in  Sep 
tember  of  each  year,  at  the  capitals  of  the  four 
Colonies,  in  rotation,  but  they  often  held  separate 
meetings,  for  in  case  of  need  they  could  be  called 
together  by  two  magistrates  of  any  colony  in  the 
union.  Their  first  meeting  was  held  in  Boston, 
in  September,  1643,  and  for  twenty  years  the 


THE    REAL    NEW    ENGLAND.  327 

Commissioners  directed  the  Indian  affairs  of  New 
England  arid  settled  most  of  the  serious  troubles 
between  the  colonies  ;  for  they  all  quarreled  with 
Massachusetts  over  boundaries,  trade,  and  other 
matters.  During  another  twenty  years  the  union 
lasted  in  name,  although  Massachusetts  controlled 
it,  often  against  the  wishes  of  the  others. 


328  THE   COLONIES. 

OHAPTEE  XVIII. 

NEW  ENGLAND  INDIANS. 

THERE  were  about  fifty  thousand  Indians  in  half 
a  dozen  large  Indian  nations  in  New  England,  when 
the  English  began  to  take  possession.  The  natives 
entered  into  the  lives  of  the  colonists  almost  as  soon 
as  they  arrived.  Some  were  hostile  ;  some  gave 
friendly  help,  such  as  others  of  whom  you  have 
read,  aided  the  planters  of  the  Southern  and  Mid 
dle  Colonies. 

The  English  boys  learned  games  from  the  Indian 
boys,  and  the  girls  too,  perhaps.  Baseball,  which  is 
now  the  national  game  of  the  United  States,  came 
from  an  Indian  game  ;  and  lacrosse,  the  national 
game  of  Canada,  is  almost  the  same  as  the  Ojibiwa's 
great  sport,  baggataway. 

THE  TAKRANTINES. 

The  red  men  of  the  north-easterly  regions  of 
Maine  and  New  Hampshire,  were  the  Tarrantines. 
They  were  badly  treated  by  some  of  the  earliest 
traders  and  discoverers.  Sir  Ferdinando  Gorges 
arid  his  friends  tried  "to  check  the  inhuman  and 
intolerable  mischiefs  practiced  on  the  natives  by 


NEW    ENGLAND    INDIANS.  329 

disorderly  fishermen."  The  rascals  sold  the  Indians 
"salt  covered  with  butter,  instead  of  so  much 
butter,  and  the  like  cozenages  arid  deceits." 

The  Tar  ran  tines  never  made  any  lasting  friend 
ship  with  the  English,  because  they  had  first  made 
friends  with  the  French.  The  French,  you  know, 
made  the  first  settlements  on  the  north-east  coast, 
and  the  English  drove  them  out  with  shameful 
cruelty.  So,  when  the  French  were  firmly  seated 
in  Acadie  and' on  the  St.  Lawrence,  they  engaged 
their  Indian  friends  to  trouble  the  English.  They 
harassed  the  isolated  little  settlements  of  Maine  arid 
New  Hampshire  for  nearly  a  hundred  years,  burst 
ing  out  in  unexpected  raids  upon  the  small  ham 
lets  of  the  fishermen  and  lumbermen.  Many  of 
the  New  Hampshire  settlements  were  destroyed 
three  and  four  times  by  these  wild,  unyielding 
savages.  They  killed  and  kidnapped  the  settlers. 
Many  a  Puritan  maiden  was  carried  off  and  held 
as  a  captive  far  from  her  home.  Often  she  was 
allowed  to  wander  about  the  camp,  but  she  knew 
that  sharp  eyes  were  watching  her  to  prevent  any 

attempt  to  escape. 

*• 

THE  MASSACHUSETTS    INDIANS. 

The  Massachusetts  Colony  had  few  Indians  at 
home  to  trouble  them.  Long  before  the  Colony 


""•   •   ' jijir^ff^^^''*'    • 


MANY  A  PURITAN  MAIDEN  WAS  CAPTIVE. 
330 


NEW    ENGLAND    INDIANS.  331 

arrived,  there  had  been  a  large  tribe  in  this  region, 
named  the  Massawachusetts,  from  the  Blue  Hills, 
or  the  Great  Hill,  of  Milton.  But  a  scourge  of 
fever  had  killed  nearly  all  of  them  and  the  neigh 
boring  tribes  before  the  Pilgrims  landed  at  New 
Plymouth.  The  few  Massawachusetts  who  lived 
through  the  fever  felt  an  awe  for  white  men. 
They  believed  that  their  plague  had  come  because 
they  had  killed  the  company  of  a  French  vessel 
which  had  entered  their  bay.  The  Frenchmen 
had  told  them  that  their  god  would  punish  the 
Indians.  The  fever  had  killed  them  by  hundreds, 
so  that  their  tribes  were  no  longer  able  to  use 

Cl 

all  their  old  hunting-grounds,  nor  to  hold  them 
against  their  fierce  neighbors,  the  Tarrantines  on 
the  east  and  the  Narragansetts  on  the  west. 

When  another  company  of  white  men  arrived, 
the  natives  were  glad  to  see  them. 

"The  white  men's  god  is  satisfied,"  they  said  ; 
"we  have  been  punished  enough.,  Now  he  has 
sent  his  people  to  stay  here  and  keep  the  Tarran 
tines  away." 

The  new-comers  were  the  Pilgrim  Colony,  who 
were  so  fair  in  buying  the  land  and  corn  and  so 
kind  to  heal  the  sick  Indians  that  some  of  the  tribes 
became  the  Englishmen's  devoted  friends.  When 

o 

the  great  ships  of  the  Massachusetts  Bay  Company 


332 


THE    COLONIES. 


began  to  bring  more  Englishmen  who  wanted  to 
settle  all  the  cleared  land  about  the  Bay,  the  natives 
willingly  sold  it  to  them,  and  helped  them  to  find 

"1 


abcthdefgh  i  j  kfma 
opqtftnav  wxyzi 


uv  w  < 


§  e  i 


tu  ci  ^3ciu  oioo  oo 


TITLE-PAGE  OF  AN  INDIAN  PRIMER. 


springs  and  pasture,  and  to  make  their  settlements. 

PRAYING  INDIANS. 

After  the   Bay   Colony  was   well  started,  there 
were  four  Englishmen  to  one  Indian   throughout 


NEW    ENGLAND    INDIANS.  333 

Massachusetts  and  New  Plymouth.  Soon  the  colo 
nists  began  to  teach  their  red  neighbors  about  God 
and  the  Bible.  Many  brave  missionaries  spent 
their  lives  in  trying  to  make  Christians  of  them. 
The  Society  for  the  Propagation  of  the  Gospel  in 
Foreign  Parts  spent  thousands  of  pounds  to  teach 
them  in  religion,  and  the  New  England  settlers, 
with  all  their  hardships,  gave  more  in  proportion 
to  pay  missionaries  to  print  Bibles  and  school- 
books,  and  to  establish  schools  to  teach  the  natives 
how  to  read  and  to  know  God,  and  also  how  to 
make  houses  and  farms  and  to  live  as  Christians 
lived.  The  English  did  not  spread  their  religion 
so  as  to  make  whole  tribes  adopt  it,  as  the  French 
did  among  the  natives  of  Canada  and  Acadie. 
The  English  converted  one  Indian  at  a  time  arid 
induced  their  converts  to  leave  their  own  people 
and  live  by  themselves,  with  English  habits,  in  the 
stockaded  village  of  JSTatick  arid  in  other  places 
near  the  large  towns. 

The  noble  young  minister,  John  Eliot,  who 
was  called  the  Apostle  to  the  Indians,  translated 
the  Bible  into  the  language  of  the  Massachusetts 
tribe,  and  made  an  excellent  Indian  Grammar. 
He  took  long  journeys  through  the  Colony,  teach 
ing,  preaching  and  helping  the  Indians  in  so  many 
ways  that  he  was  loved  and  respected,  even  by 


334 


THE    COLONIES. 


those   who  did   not  accept  his   religion.     Among 
many  other  good  men  who  devoted  their  lives  to 

the  natives  were 
Thomas  Mayhew 
and  his  son,  on 
Martha's  Vineyard 

»/ 

and  Roger  Will 
iams  on  Narragari- 
sett  Bay. 

But  after  about 
fifty  years  the  New 
Englanders  had  not 
converted  one-half 
of  the  eight  thou 
sand  redmen  in 
New  Plymouth 
arid  Massachusetts. 
Whole  nations  held 
aloof.  With  all  the 
attempts  of  each  to 
learn  the  other's 
language,  the  sav 
ages  could  understand  little  of  what  the  English 
men  said. 

It  was  not  strange  that  when  the  "  praying  In 
dians  "  went  off  to  live  in  little  villages  among 
white  men,  their  own  tribes  felt  angry  and  believed 


STATUE  TO  THE  APOSTLE  ELIOT. 


NEW    ENGLAND    INDIANS.  335 

that  the  English  were  planning  some  great  seheme 
against  them. 

THE    PEjQJJOTS. 

The  largest  and  most  warlike  tribes  of  New 
England  were  the  Pequots.  They  were  also  most 
cruel  to  their  captives.  They  held  the  sea-shore 
and  river  region  west  from  the  Connecticut  River 
to  the  pretty  river  Thames,  where  New  London  is 
now,  and  where  hundreds  of  grown-up  boys  and 
girls  go  every  year  to  see  the  boat-races  between 
the  Yale  and  Harvard  crews. 

The  head  of  the  Pequot  nation  was  Sassacus,  to 
whom  twenty-six  lesser  sachems  paid  tribute  ; 
among  them  was  Uncas,  the  sachem  of  the  Mohi 
cans,  who  had  been  driven  away  from  the  Hudson 
by  the  Mohawks,  and  were  allowed  to  live  on  the 
lower  waters  of  the  Connecticut,  on  their  paying 
the  Pequots  a  good  price  for  the  privilege. 

The  Pequots  had  an  old  quarrel  with  the  Nar- 
ragansetts,  and  proudly  believed  that  they,  too, 
could  be  reduced  and  made  to  pay  tribute.  So,  of 
course,  Sassacus  and  his  warriors  were  angry  when 
they  heard  that  the  Narragansetts  had  been  to 
Boston  and  made  a  treaty  with  the  strangers,  who 
carried  more  deadly  arms  than  the  Indians7  bows 
and  arrows.  On  the  other  hand,  the  Mohicans,  to 


336 


THE    COLONIES. 


strengthen  themselves,  had  coaxed  the  English  to 
settle  in  the  Connecticut  Valley. 

After  the  settlements  were  well  started  on  the 
river,  and  the  Pequots  had  had  a  few  unpleasant 
dealings  with  the  strangers,  the  Pequots  made  up 
their  minds  that  the  English  must  be  wiped  out, 


ART  OF  AN  INDIAN  VILLAGE. 


or  the  Indians  would  be.  They  induced  some  of 
the  Mohicans  to  join  them,  and  would  have  per 
suaded  their  enemies,  the  Narragansetts,  but  for 
Roger  Williams. 

The  people  of  the  half-starving  new  towns  on  the 
Connecticut  soon  learned  what  the  Pequots  were 


NEW    ENGLAND    INDIANS.  337 

doing.  Their  brave  men  set  forth  to  stop  them, 
led  by  Captain  John ' Mason,  who,  in  a  wonderful 
campaign  of  a  few  hours,  destroyed  the  principal 
Pequot  village  and  frightened  the  rest  of  the  nation 
so  that  they  burned  the  other  village  themselves. 
Sassacus  fled  to  the  Mohawks,  who  politely  sent 
his  head  to  the  colonists.  Then  Mason's  little  army, 
with  some  aid  from  the  Massachusetts  Colony, 
hunted  down  the  warriors  who  had  escaped,  until 
the  nation  was  utterly  destroyed. 

It  all  happened  with  the  spring  and  summer  of 
1637.  There  was  not  another  Indian  war  for  nearly 
forty  years  ;  but  the  settlers  lived  in  almost  daily 
dread  of  small  troubles,  such  as  a  drunken  or  a 
revengeful  Indian  lurking  about  a  town  with  his 
torch  and  his  tomahawk. 

THE  NABBAGANSETTS. 

The  New  Eriglanders  often  had  trouble  with  the 
Narragansetts,  who  held  the  country  about  the 
head  and  the  westerly  shores  of  the  Narragansett 
Bay.  They  had  many  villages,  several  forts  and 
two  thousand  warriors,  arid  were  the  overlords  of 
two  smaller  nations,  who  were  near  neighbors. 
One  of  these,  the  Nipmucks,  were  a  squalid  people. 
Their  villages  did  not  come  down  to  the  sea,  but  lay 
up-country,  northwest  of  the  Narragansetts,  over 


338 


THE    COLONIES. 


the  beautiful  region  from  Quinsigamond  toward 
blue  mountain,  Monadnock.  The  other  tributaries 
of  the  Narragansetts  were  the  Nyantics,  a  small  but 
powerful  nation,  living  by  themselves  in  the  coun 
try  about  Point  Judith. 

When  the  English   came  into  the  country,  the 
Narragansetts   decided  to   make  an   alliance  with 


BELT  OP  REMARKABLE  WAMPUM-WORK. 


them,  such  as  the  Iroquois  had  made  with  the 
Dutch  and  the  Canadian  Indians  with  the  French. 
The  Narragansetts  had  been  attacked  by  the 
Pequots,  and  they  wanted  the  English  to  aid  them 
to  overcome  their  fierce  neighbors  as  soon  as  pos 
sible,  because  their  sachem,  Canonic  us,  was  very 
old,  and  his  nephew,  Miantinorno,  who  was  to  take 
his  place,  was  very  young. 

The  Narragansetts  also  wanted  the  English  to 


NEW    ENGLAND    INDIANS.  339 

aid  them  to  extend  their  possession  all  the  way 
around  their  bay  arid  over  the  land  of  the 
Wampanoags,  described  a  few  pages  later. 
When  the  Wampanoag  sachem,  Massa- 
soit,  got  ahead  of  them  in  making  a  treaty 
with  the  Plymouth  Colony,  the  Narragan- 
setts  were  so  angry  that  they  threw  the 
rattlesnake  skin  stuffed  with  arrows  into 
Governor  Bradford's  cabin,  of  which  you 
may  have  read  in  other  books.  When  the 
skin  was  returned  stuffed  with  powder  and 
bullets,  which  the  Narragarisetts  knew  was 
the  stuff  that  made  the  white  men's  arms 
so  deadly,  it  was  passed  from  chief  to 
chief,  and  at  last  came  back  to  New  Plym 
outh  with  a  pledge  of  peace. 

WAMPUM-MAKERS. 

The  Narragansetts;  like  the  Montauks  of 
Long  Island,   made   wampum,   which  was 
used  for  money  by  all  the  natives  of  this 
region    and   by  both    the    Dutch   and   the 
English.    In  the  Narragansett  waters  were 
large    quantities    of    periwinkles.      These 
were  gathered  by  certain  ones  of  the  tribes,   BLACK  AND 
while  certain  others  patiently  polished  them    wJgS. 
until  they  became  the  brilliant  little  pearly-white 


340  THE    COLONIES. 

trumpet  -  shaped  pieces  called  white  wampum. 
There,  also,  were  thousands  of  quahogs  or  little- 
neck  clams,  from  which  they  cut  the  deep-blue 
centres  by  long  and  tedious  work  with  sharp- 
pointed  stones,  and  then  polished  them  into  what 
the  English  called  black  wampum,  which  was  twice 
the  value  of  the  white.  The  Narragansetts'  wam 
pum-embroidered  garments  were  the  most  beauti 
ful  in  Few  England. 

THE  CONaUEST  OF  THE  NARRAGANSETTS. 

Although  the  Narragarisetts  made  a  treaty  with 
the  Plymouth  and  Massachusetts  Colonies,  they  had 
so  little  friendship  for  them  that  they  were  willing 
to  join  their  own  old  enemies,  the  Pequots,  in  a 
great  war  against  the  white  men.  But  they  loved 
Roger  Williams  and  some  of  the  settlers  who 
founded  Providence  and  the  other  towns  afterwards 
united  in  the  Colony  of  Rhode  Island.  Williams 
persuaded  them  not  to  join  the  Pequots  against 
the  English;  but  about  fifty  years  later,  when 
Williams  was  dead,  they  agreed  to  help  another 
ancient  enemy,  the  Wampanoags,  in  King  Philip's 
war,  to  destroy  all  the  white  men  in  New  England. 

The  Massachusetts  heard  of  their  union  with 
Philip,  and  in  a  swift  attack  on  their  great  fort  so 
weakened  and  frightened  them  that  they  were 
glad  to  make  a  treaty  with  the  colonists. 


NEW    ENGLAND    INDIANS.  341 

THE  WAMPANOAGS. 

Excepting  the  few  survivors  of  broken  tribes, 
the  Wampanoags  were  the  nearest  neighbors  to 
New  Plymouth  and  the  Bay  Colony.  They  were 
seated  just  back  of  New  Plymouth,  on  the  eastern 
shore  of  Narragansett  Bay.  Their  chief,  Massasoit, 
was  one  of  the  most  powerful  sachems  in  New 
England. 

Massasoit's  capital  at  Sowams  was  a  beautiful 
place  near  Narragansett  Bay,  where  now  stands 
Warren,  Rhode  Island.  "  Every  pond  and  water 
fall  and  neck  of  land  and  almost  every  hill  had 
its  own  tribe  under  its  own  chief ; ;?  but  all  of 
them,  "from  the  Cape  of  Storms  to  the  east  side 
of  Narragansett  Bay,  including  Nantucket,  Mar 
tha's  Vineyard  and  many  other  islands  dotting  the 
sea  along  the  coast,  were  under  tribute  to  Mas 
sasoit.77 

It  was  a  fortunate  thing  for  the*  New  Eng- 
landers  that  Massasoit  was  pleased  to  make  friends 
with  the  Pilgrims  arid  their  neighbors,  the  Massa 
chusetts  Bay  Company.  The  treaty  was  also  kept 
by  his  son,  Wamsutta,  who  was  baptized  Alexander 
by  the  English.  Many  of  good  old  Massasoit's 
people  refused  the  English  religion.  Among  them 
was  his  second  son,  Metacomet,  although  he,  too, 
had  been  baptized.  His  Christian  name  was  Philip. 


342  THE   COLONIES. 

By  the  time  that  Philip  became 
sachem  of  the  Wampanoags,  his  fa 
ther  and  brother  had  sold  their 
land  until  he  and  his  seven  hundred 
warriors  and  their  families  were 
crowded  into  one  peninsula  near  the 
head  of  Narragansett  Bay,  bordering 
on  New  Plymouth,  now  the  neigh 
borhood  of  Bristol  and  Tiverton, 
Rhode  Island. 

King  Philip    kept  the  peace    for 
twelve  years,  but  he    and  the   colo 
nists  had  many  small  trou 
bles,     which     were     always 
partly    settled,     but     never 
made  quite  right.      Several 
times    the   magistrates  were 
obliged  to   call    him   before 
them,   because    friendly    In 
dians  had   told   that  he  was 
getting  ready  for  war.  Every 
time  he  cleverly  pleaded  in 
nocence  and  got  away.    Yet 
all  the  time  he  was  planning 
to  unite  the  Indians  of  every 
tribe  along  the  coast  in  one 
THE  CALUMET,  great  uprising  to  drive  out 

The  Indians1  Pipe  of  Peace. 


NEW   ENGLAND    INDIANS.  343 

the  Englishmen  before  they  had  taken  all  the  In 
dians7  hunting--  and  fishing-grounds. 

In  the  summer  of  1675,  he  and  his  allies  fell 
upon  the  white  men  and  kept  up  a  terrible  war  for 
over  a  year.  After  he  was  killed,  the  remains  of 
his  tribe  fled  to  the  Tarrantines,  and  the  fighting 
was  kept  up  for  two  years  and  a  half  more. 

So  while  the  Wainpanoags  were  the  nearest 
neighbors  and  the  first  and  greatest  friends  of  the 
New  Englanders,  they  ended  by  plunging  them 
into  the  most  serious  Indian  war  they  ever  had. 
It  was  also  their  last  conflict,  excepting  the 
troubles  with  the  natives  of  Maine,  which  were 
part  of  the  wars  in  which  the  English  won  the 
country  from  the  French. 


344  THE  COLONIES. 


CHAPTER  XIX. 

A  CHAPTER  ON  REBELLIONS. 

THE  colonists  always  had  strong*  feelings  about 
their  rights.  True  Englishmen,  they  were  glad 
to  think  of  themselves  as  subjects  of  their  king, 
but  they  were  determined  to  be  free,  to  tax  and  to 
govern  themselves.  They  felt  that  it  was  their 
duty  to  explain  their  grievances  and  to  allow  a 
reasonable  length  of  time  for  matters  to  be  settled 
by  the  Home  Government,  as  they  called  the 
authorities  in  England.  But  the  colonists  also 

o 

knew  when  patience  ceased  to  be  a  virtue,  and  they 
asserted  their  rights  by  open  rebellion  long  before 
they  were  forced  into  the  great  resistance  whereby 
they  won  their  independence. 

THE  THRUSTING  OUT  OF  GOVERNOR  HARVEY. 

Even  the  loyal  kingsmen  of  Virginia  were  not 
afraid  to  defy  his  Majesty's  governor  to  his  face, 
if  necessary. 

For  about  five  years  after  Virginia  was  made  a 
Royal  Province,  the  planters  had  governors  whom 
they  could  respect ;  men  who  did  a  great  deal  for 
the  country's  good.  But  King  Charles  I.  did  not 


A   CHAPTER   ON    REBELLIONS.  345 

propose  to  let  his  colonies  have  all  the  benefit  of 
their  prosperity.  In  fact,  he  proposed  to  have 
pretty  nearly  all  the  benefit  himself.  Ever  since 
the  Yirgiiiia  government  was  established,  the  Gov 
ernor  had  received  the  honor  of  knighthood.  To 
this  honor  Charles  I.  added  a  large  salary  and  fees, 
which  the  people  were  to  pay.  He  also  ordered 
them  to  make  presents  to  his  Governor  and  to  pro 
vide  for  him  a  comfortable  living.  The  first  man 
sent  to  receive  all  these  emoluments  was  Sir  John 
Harvey,  who  came  in  1629  and  stayed  for  ten 
years,  "insulting  everybody  and  putting  the  public 
revenues  into  his  own  pocket.7'  He  fined  the  peo 
ple  for  everything,  quarreled  with  the  Assembly 
when  they  objected  to  his  doings  ;  and,  if  he  could 
not  carry  out  his  plan  in  any  other  way,  he  bribed 
the  officers  under  him. 

When  Leonard  Cal vert,  Lord  Baltimore's  brother, 
brought  over  a  colony  to  settle  Maryland,  the  great 
tract  sliced  off  Virginia,  Harvey  entertained  Cal- 
vert  with  all  the  hospitality  Charles  I.  demanded, 
and  more,  too.  The  Virginians  said  he  had  an  eye 
to  Cal  vert's  trade.  They  also  said  that  he  had  an 
interest  in  trade  with  the  Dutch,  and  that  he  would 
sacrifice  Virginia  to  either  one.  The  planters  were 
more  bitter  than  ever  against  him  when  he  joined 
Calvert  in  a  treaty  with  the  Indian  tribes  between 


346  THE   COLONIES. 

the  Potomac  River  and  the  Susquehanna  River  for 
protection  against  the  warlike  tribes  at  the  head  of 
Chesapeake  Bay.  This  treaty  was  a  good  thing, 
for  Virginia,  but  the  Virginians  did  not  think  so. 

At  length  their  quarrel  with  the  new  colony 
came  to  bloodshed.  Harvey  sent  the  Virginians'' 
ringleader,  Secretary  Claiborne,  to  England  for 
mutiny.  Then  the  planters'  wrath  broke  out.  The 
old  record  is:  "On  the  twenty-eighth  of  April, 
1635,  Sir  John  Harvey  thrust  out  of  his  govern 
ment  and  Captain  John  West  acts  as  governor  until 
the  king's  pleasure  known." 

The  King's  pleasure  was  great  anger.  He  said 
Harvey  should  go  back  if  only  to  stay  a  day,  ' '  and 
if  he  can  clear  himself,  he  shall  stay  longer  than 
he  otherwise  would  have  done."  The  Virginians 
had  assumed  the  King's  power  in  thrusting  out 
the  King's  governor,  which  was  a  grave  offense. 
Harvey  cleared  himself  with  Lord  Baltimore's 
help,  and  went  back  for  two  years.  But  at  the 
end  of  that  time,  the  king  took  the  trouble  to  send 
in  his  place  one  of  the  Virginians'  favorite  gov 
ernors  of  early  days,  Sir  Francis  Wyatt. 

THE  VIRGINIANS  AND  THE  PURITAN  REBELLION 
IN   ENGLAND. 

The  reign  of  Charles  I.  came  to  a  violent  end  in 
the  uprising  of  the  English  Puritans,  or  "Round- 


A   CHAPTER   ON    REBELLIONS.  347 

heads,"  who  obtained  control  of  Parliament  and 
called  themselves  the  Keepers  of  the  Common 
wealth  of  England.  They  formed  a  large  army, 
which  conquered  the  King  and  his  army.  At 
length  they  beheaded  the  King  and  made  their 
leading  soldier,  Oliver  Cromwell,  the  Lord  Pro 
tector  of  the  Realm. 

The  Virginians  were  much  opposed  to  these 
changes.  They  were  "  Cavaliers,"  or  members  of 
the  Royalist  party.  They  believed  in  the  divine 
right  of  kings  and  in  the  House  of  Stuart.  The 
uprising  of  the  Puritans  they  called  a  wicked 
rebellion,  and  the  execution  of  Charles  I.  at  White 
hall,  they  called  "the  murder  of  the  late  most 
excellent  and  now  undoubted  sainted  King." 
They -said  that  it  was  treason  to  think  of  changing 
from  the  Royal  Government,  or  to  question  the 
rio-ht  of  Charles  I. 's  oldest  son  to  be  called  "his 

o 

Majesty  that  now  is  Charles  the  Second."  They 
fortified  Jamestown,  and  sent  an  invitation  to 
Prince  Charles  to  take  refuge  among  them  until 
he  was  restored  to  the  throne.  Hundreds  of 
Cavaliers  who  fled  England  for  their  lives  were 
received  by  the  planters  and  entertained  for  the 
King's  sake,  even  if  they  had  not  a  penny  in  their 
pockets.  So  many  of  these  gentlemen  came  over 
that  they  soon  formed  the  highest  class  of  planters 


348  THE-  COLONIES. 

in  the  Colony,  taking  the  lead  in  all  its  affairs, 
and  founding  many  of  the  "first  families  of  Vir 
ginia.77  From  that  time  on  Virginia  has  been 
known  as  "The  Old  Dominion.77 

THE  OLD  DOMINION. 

About  three  years  after  the  death  of  Charles  I. 
a  fleet  carne  into  the  James  River  with  three  men 
from  Parliament  to  demand  Virginia's  surrender 
to  the  Commonwealth.  Sir  William  Berkeley,  the 
Governor,  quietly  gave  up  his  office,  and  the 
Assembly  agreed  to  yield,  since  they  would  only 
make  trouble,  and  gain  nothing  by  resistance. 
'  The  Ancient  and  Most  Loyal  Dominion  of  Vir 
ginia,77  they  said,  proudly,  "  was  the  last  portion 
of  England's  territory  to  submit  to  Cromwell.77 
The  commissioners  from  Parliament  were  led  by 
William  Claiborne,  who  came  back  a  Roundhead, 
and  Roger  Bennett,  a  much  respected  Puritan, 
who  had  been  driven  out  of  Virginia  for  his 
religion  by  Governor  Berkeley. 

None  of  the  harsh  measures  used  towards  the 
kingsmen  in  England  were  laid  upon  the  Vir 
ginians.  The  Royal  Governor  and  Council  were 
allowed  to  pray  for  the  King  in  private  houses, 
and  to  send  their  own  messengers  to  Prince 
Charles.  The  House  of  Burgesses,  elected  by 


A    CHAPTER    ON    REBELLIONS.  349 

the  people,  were  the  actual  rulers  of  the  Province. 
Part  of  the  time  they  choose  their  own  governors. 
Parliament  laid  out  an  elaborate  scheme  for  tax 
ing  the  colonies  in  America,  but  never  put  it  in 
force.  The  colonies  were  left  to  govern  themselves. 
It  was  a  time  of  enterprise  and  success.  All 
Virginia  freemen  then  voted  and  had  a  voice  in 
the  making  of  their  laws.  They  had  free  trade, 
religious  liberty  and  a  good  militia  of  eight  thou 
sand  men.  Population  was  increased  fourfold. 
Almost  as  many  Puritans  as  Cavaliers  settled  in 
Virginia  during  this  time.  Soon  after  Cromwell's 
death,  the  Virginia  people  quietly  called  Governor 
Berkeley  to  his  old  place.  Two  months  after 
wards  Charles  IT.  was  restored  to  his  father's 
throne,  and  the  Virginians  said  that  he  was  crowned 
in  a  robe  made  of  silk  raised  in  his  "ancient  and 
most  loyal  dominion." 

MARYLAND  DURING  THE  COMMONWEALTH. 

When  Charles  I.  was  killed  there  were  many 
Puritans  in  Maryland.  Most  of  them  had  found 
refuge  there  when  they  were  driven  out  of  Vir 
ginia  several  years  before.  They  made  a  settle 
ment,  which  they  called  Providence,  on  the  Severn 
River,  in  what  was  named  Anne  Arundel  County 
for  Lord  Baltimore's  wife.  The  Puritans7  settle- 


350  THE    COLONIES. 

merit  was  afterwards  called  Arundeltown  arid  later 
Annapolis,  which  became  the  centre  of  the  gayest 
life  in  Maryland. 

As    the    Puritan    party    rose    in    England,    the 
Puritans  of  Maryland   turned  against  their  good 
friends,  the   Maryland   Catholics,  and   while  Gov 
ernor  Calvert  was  on  a  short  visit  in  England,  they 
formed   a   rebellion   against    Baltimore's   govern 
ment,  with  the   help  of  William   Claiborne  and  a 
certain  sea  captain,  Richard    Ingle,   who  led   an 
open  revolt  against   the   Governor  as  soon  as   he 
returned.     They  attacked  Saint  Mary's,  captured 
the   Jesuit  missionaries,  shipped  some  of  them  to 
England,  established  a  man  from  Virginia  as  Gov 
ernor,  arid  ruled  the  Province  in  their  own  lawless 
fashion  for  two  years.     In  the  name  of  Parliament 
they  made  prisoners  of  any  one  they  chose  to  rob 
or  annoy  ;  they  stripped   mills  of  machinery,  and 
took  locks  and  hinges  from  the  settlers'   houses, 
pillaged   plantations,   arid  seized  corn,  tobacco  or 
whatever  they  wanted  either  to  use  or  to  turn  into 
money. 

Governor  Calvert  and  the  friends  of  Baltimore's 
government  escaped  to  Virginia  and  hid  in  caves, 
where  they  tried  to  plan  some  means  to  regain  the 
Colony.  When  Lord  Baltimore  heard  the  news, 
he  thought  that  his  Palatinate  was  lost.  He  wrote 


A    CHAPTER    ON    REBELLIONS.  351 

his  brother  to  save  what  he  could  from  the  general 
wreck.  But  as  soon  as  Calvert  learned  that  all 
sensible  men  in  the  Province  were  disgusted  with 
Ingle's  lawlessness,  he  pledged  his  own  and  Lord 
Baltimore's  estates  to  pay  volunteers,  and  formed 
a  small  army  of  the  fugitive  Marylanders,  and  of 
many  Virginians,  who  dropped  their  own  quarrel 
to  fight  for  fair  play.  In  April,  1647,  he  led  them 
in  a  swift  March  to  Saint  Mary's.  The  town  was 
surprised,  and  yielded  quickly,  even  gladly. 
Then  all  the  settlers  of  the  Western  Shore  wel 
comed  the  Governor's  return.  After  a  short  re 
sistance  the  rest  of  the  people  fell  into  line.  By  a 
few  months  of  "wise  clemency"  Calvert  spread 
peace  through  his  distracted  Province  ;  but  they 
were  the  last  months  of  his  life. 

TOO  MUCH  LOYALTY  IN  VIRGINIA. 

The  Virginians  were  so  happy  when  they  heard 
that  the  Puritans  of  England  had  given  up  trying 
to  govern  the  country,  and  that  the  Prince  had 
been  called  to  the  throne  as  Charles  II.,  that  they 
did  not  arrange  for  their  own  government,  as  they 
ought  to  have  done.  They  soon  turned  every 
thing  over  to  Governor  Berkeley  arid  the  Royalists. 
Before  long  the  mistake  began  to  appear,  and  a 
little  band  of  those  who  saw  it,  planned  to  give  the 


353 


A    CHAPTER    ON    REBELLIONS.  353 

people  some  share  in  the  control  of  affairs.  But 
their  plan  was  discovered  by  the  Royalists,  and 
the  day  they  had  set  to  carry  it  out  was  ordered 
by  the  General  Assembly  to  be  Virginia's  Annual 
Thanksgiving-day. 

Then  for  a  dozen  years  the  new  king  and  his 
officers  gave  the  colonists  no  rights  of  their  own, 
and  took  from  them  all  the  profits  of  their  labor, 
either  for  himself  or  to  fill  the  purses  of  his  officers. 
Not  even  a  new  election  of  burgesses  was  allowed 
by  the  proud  Royalist  Governor,  Berkeley. 

About  fifteen  years  after  the  Restoration,  some 
of  the  fierce  Susquehanna  Indians  began  to  attack 
the  frontier  plantations.  The  Governor  refused  to 
allow  the  militia  to  go  out  and  stop  them.  People 
said  the  Governor  had  a  lar^e  secret  trade  with 

o 

them,  and  he  was  afraid  to  get  their  ill-will. 

At  length  the  Indians  killed  so  many  overseers 
and  workmen,  and  destroyed  so  many  plantations, 
that  several  of  the  owners  went  out  against  the 
Governor's  orders.  They  were  led  by  a  brave 
young  planter  and  member  of  the  Governor's 
Council,  Nathaniel  Bacon.  They  defeated  the  In 
dians  in  the  battle  of  Bloody  Run,  and  put  an  end 
to  their  attacks  on  the  plantations. 

The  Governor  was  very  angry,  but  the  people 
and  many  of  the  richest  planters  were  aroused 


354  THE    COLONIES. 

also.  They  said  that  Virginia  had  endured  the 
old  Restoration  ideas  long  enough,  and  mueh 
against  his  will  the  Governor  was  obliged  to  call 
for  a  new  election  of  burgesses.  Bacon  and  many 
men  who  thought  as  he  did  were  sent  to  make 
a  new  set  of  laws  in  this  Assembly.  It  was  called 
Bacon's  Assembly.  Their  laws  were  so  good  that 
Virginia  would  have  been  a  happy,  prosperous 
and  enlightened  province  if  the  King  had  allowed 
them  to  stand. 

"BACON'S  REBELLION." 

Governor  Berkeley  grew  more  angry,  until  Ba 
con's  friends  feared   that  some  harm  might  befall 

o 

him.  So,  after  the  Assembly  opened,  he  left  it 
privately.  A  few  days  later  he  returned,  riding 
at  the  head  of  nearly  five  hundred  horsemen,  who 
drew  rein  at  the  steps  of  the  State  House,  where 
they  called  aloud  on  Governor  Berkeley  to  give 
Bacon  a  military  commission  to  save  the  life  and 
property  of  the  people  of  Virginia  from  the  Indians. 
The  burgesses  appeared  at  the  windows,  shouting  : 
"A  commission  to  Nathaniel  Bacon,  to  save  the  life 
and  property  of  the  people  of  Virginia !  "  The  peo 
ple,  who  gathered  in  the  street,  echoed  the  demand. 
The  old  Governor  came  out  on  the  steps,  red  arid 
blustering  with  rage,  trying  in  vain  to  shame  his 


A    CHAPTER    ON    REBELLIONS.  355 

young  .enemy  before  the  people.  He  only  turned 
them  against  himself.  There  was  nothing  for  him 
to  do  but  to  make  "the  rebel/'  as  he  called  Bacon, 
"  General  and  Commander-in-Chief  against  the 
Indians  ;  "  and  that  was  nothing  less  than  placing 
him  at  the  head  of  all  the  Virginians  who  chose  to 
enter  the  militia.  A  great  many  of  the  "prime 
gentlemen  of  the  Province "  were  either  in  the 
militia  at  the  time  or  entered  it  as  soon  as  Bacon 
took  command. 

Governor  Berkeley  was  so  frightened  that  he 
took  out  his  own  guard  under  Major  Robert  Bev 
erly,  arid  went  from  county  to  county,  calling  on 
the  people  to  take  up  arms  against  the  young 
rebel.  The  General's  army  only  increased,  while 
his  party  worked  hard  to  improve  the  government 
and  to  keep  the  Indians  quiet.  Berkeley  made  his 
way  back  to  Jamestown  with  a  rabble  of  fishermen 
and  other  poor  fellows  he  had  picked  up.  Bacon 
returned  to  the  same  neighborhood,  camping  his 
men  at  Greenspring,  Berkeley's  country-seat.  Some 
writers  tell  a  story — and  others  say  there  is  no 
truth  in  it — of  how  Bacon  secured  the  ladies  of  the 
neighborhood  and  made  them  walk  up  and  down, 
in  front  of  his  men  while  they  were  digging 
trenches,  so  that  Berkeley  would  see  the  white 
aprons  and  be  afraid  to  shoot  at  the  men. 


356  THE    COLONIES. 

The  Governor  rushed  out  to  take  his  place ;  but 
his  mob  was  so  unruly  that  he  was  forced  to  run 
back  to  Jamestown  as  soon  as  Bacon  went  to  meet 
him.  From  Jamestown  the  Governor  slipped 
away  by  night.  The  rebels  entered  the  capital, 
and  after  taking  care  of  the  state  papers  and  other 
valuables  of  the  Colony,  they  burned  the  malarious 
little  town  to  the  ground,  "lest  it  be  the  harbour- 
ing-place  for  the  enemies  of  the  country,"  they 
said.  Two  of  the  leaders  of  the  rebellion  put  the 
torch  to  their  own  houses,  which  were  among  the 
best  in  the  town. 

Bacon's  forces  then  began  to  follow  Berkeley. 
As  they  marched  through  the  country  they  were 
greeted  with  "shouts  and  acclamations."  The 
General  forced  the  marches  to  the  utmost ;  for  he 
was  stricken  with  fever,  and  his  only  hope  was  to 
hold  out  till  the  Governor  was  compelled  to  yield 
to  the  "prime  gentlemen''  and  a  more  liberal  gov 
ernment.  But  the  Governor's  hiding-place  was 
not  in  sight  when  the  troops  were  startled  by  a 
call  to  halt,  with  the  sad  news  that  the  General 
was  dead.  His  friends  buried  him  in  a  secret  grave, 
which  has  never  been  discovered.  Then  they  tried 
to  go  on  ;  first  under  one  leader,  then  another.  But 
no  one  could  fill  Bacon's  place.  They  fell  into  traps 
laid  for  them  by  the  Governor  and  Major  Beverly, 


A    CHAPTER    ON    REBELLIONS.  357 

till,  discouraged,  they  agreed  among  themselves 
to  disband,  and  each  man  rode  off  to  his  home. 

Then  the  old  Governor  left  his  hiding  and  went 
to  York,  where  he  began  to  punish  the  rebels, 
much  as  if  he  were  an  Indian  chief,  till  King- 
Charles  II.  sent  orders  to  stop  him,  saying  :  "  The 
old  fool  has  hanged  more  men  in  that  naked  country 
than  I  have  done  for  the  murder  of  my  father !  " 
Yet  the  King  was  so  angry  with  the  Virginians 
for  this  rebellion  that  he  not  only  refused  to  allow 
one  act  of  Bacon's  Assembly,  but  bound  them 
down  with  more  oppression  than  ever.  He  did 
not  change  their  spirit,  however.  Some  twenty 
years  later,  when  Charles  II.  was  dead  and  his 
brother  James  II,  was  on  the  throne,  the  Virginian 
Assembly  boldly  declared  that  they  could  not 
endure  his  government. 

JAMES    II.'S    DOMINION    OF    NEW    ENGLAND    AND 
THE    RESCUE    OF    CONNECTICUT'S   CHARTER. 

James  II.  roused  rebellion  wherever  he  ruled. 
Within  three  years  his  English  subjects  rose  in 
such  force  against  him  that  he  fled  to  France  for 
his  life,  while  the  people  gave  the  throne  to  his 
daughter,  Mary,  and  her  husband  and  cousin, 
William,  Prince  of  Orange.  But  the  open  revolts 
against  this  last  of  the  Stuart  kings  were  in  the 
Middle  Northerly  Colonies,  where  he  attempted  to 


358  THE    COLONIES. 

destroy  all  the  colonial  charters  from  Delaware 
Bay  to  the  St.  Lawrence  and  make  one  great  prov 
ince,  which  he  called  the  Dominion  of  New  Eng 
land,  and  placed  under  Sir  Edmund  Andros  as 
General-Governor,  with  his  capital  at  Boston. 

You   can  fancy  how  the  people  of  Connecticut 
felt  on  hearing  that  they  were  to  lose  their  precious 


JAMES  II. 's  SEAL  FOR  THE  DOMINION  OF  NEW  ENGLAND. 

charter  and  become  part  of  the  new  Dominion. 
But  it  was  not  their  way  to  bluster.  When  Sir 
Edmund  visited  Hartford  to  destroy  their  charter, 
they  received  him  graciously  and  held  a  dignified 
meeting  with  him,  the  charter  apparently  lying  in 
its  box  on  the  table.  In  some  way,  the  meeting 
was  prolonged  hour  after  hour  until  nightfall. 
Then  candles  were  brought  in,  and  the  business 


A    CHAPTER    ON    REBELLIONS.  359 

proceeded.  But  suddenly  a  door  blew  open  and  the 
candles  went  out.  When  they  were  lighted  again 
the  charter  was  nowhere  to  be  found.  The  polite 
Connecticut  gentlemen  searched  and  searched,  but 
at  length  they  told  Sir  Edmund  that  they  were 
obliged  to  give  it  up  in  order  to  help  him  finish 
his  other  business  ;  after  which  he  w£Jltvfa^ay. 
Before  he  could  make  it  convenient  to  come  again, 
his  King's  rule  had  fallen  in  England  and'  he  was 
prisoner  in  Boston.  Then  the  charter  reappeared, 
and  the  good  fathers  of  Connecticut  took  up  their 
government  under  it  almost  as  if  nothing  had 

r?  /  O 

happened. 

THE   CHARTER   OAK. 

The  box  that  had  been  on  the  table  did  not  con 
tain  the  charter,  but  a  copy  of  it.  The  charter  had 
been  safely  hidden  in  a  great  oak  tree  that  stood 
near  the  entrance  to  the  mansion  of  Governor 
Wyllys.  The  copy  which  had  been  on  the  table 
and  disappeared  when  the  candles  went  out  was 
taken  and  kept  in  hiding  by  Captain  Wadsworth. 

The  famous  old  tree,  always  called  the  Charter 
Oak,  was  blown  down  Ity  a  storm  of  wind  nearly 
fifty  years  ago.  Part  of  the  trunk,  where  the 
charter  is  supposed  to  have  been  hidden,  is  still 
kept  in  the  Athenreum  at  Hartford. 

It  is  said  that  the  Indians  had  asked  the  first- 


360  THE   COLONIES. 

comers  to  spare  the  tree  when  they  were  making 
their  clearing  for  the  town  of  Hartford.  The  In 
dians  said  :  u  For  centuries  our  fathers  have  looked 
to  this  tree  to  know  when  to  plant  our  maize. 
When  the  leaves  are  the  size  of  a  mouse's  ears,  then 
it  is  time  to  drop  the  kernels  in  the  earth.77 

MASSACHUSETTS'  REBELLION  AGAINST  SIR 
EDMUND  ANDROS. 

The  Massachusetts  people  did  not  like  King 
James  II. 's  Dominion  of  New  England  any  more 
than  the  other  colonists,  even  if  Boston  was  honored 
as  the  capital  of  the  great  new  Province.  They 
lost  their  charter  and  all  their  cherished  rights, 
while  they  were  obliged  to  modify  the  rigid  customs 
they  had  crossed  the  ocean  to  preserve.  Nothing- 
pleased  them  that  was  done  by  Governor  Andros 
and  his'  officers. 

Month  after  month  the  feeling  grew  more  bitter. 
Suddenly  while  Andros  was  in  Maine,  trying  to 
quiet  the  Indians,  the  Bostonians  heard  that  the 
power  of  James  II.  was  sinking  in  England.  So 
when  the  Governor  returned  to  his  capital  the 
people  felt  safe  to  show  him  their  dislike.  He 
promptly  did  things  to  make  matters  worse.  Some 
men  of  Sudbury  came  to  him  with  an  Indian  who 
had  said  that  the  Governor  was  a  rogue,  and  had 
hired  the  English  to  kill  the  Indians.  They 


SIR  EDMUND  ANDROS,  GOVERNOR-GENERAL  OF  THE  DOMINION  OF  NEW  ENGLAND. 


362  THE   COLONIES. 

brought  this  fellow  to  the  Governor  for  punish 
ment.  It  was  an  act  of  loyalty  which  Andros 
should  have  acknowledged  with  courtesy  and  praise, 
especially  at  that  time  when  so  many  men  were 
against  him  ;  but  he  rudt'ly  refused  to  take  any 
notice  of  it,  and  fined  the  Sudbury  men  and  their 
friends.  One  said  that  the  Governor  was  afraid  to 
punish  the  man.  Then  all  the  stories  against 
Andros  were  told  and  believed  throughout  the 
Colony.  People  said  he  was  a  traitor  as  well  as  a 
despot.  Everybody  know  that  his  Royal  master 
was  under  the  thumb  of  the  French  king,  Louis 
XIV.,  and  all  that  the  Governor  had  done  was  con 
strued  as  part  of  a  plot  which  had  something  to  do 
with  the  French  man-of-war  which  had  been  seen 
hovering  about  the  coast.  The  way  he  had  dealt 
with  the  eastern  Indians,  his  visits  to  Maine,  his 
visits  to  Albany,  all  the  important  treaties  he  had 
made  with  the  savages,  all  were  not  what  he  said 
they  were,  these  gossips  declared  ;  all  were  part  of 
the  plot,  In  the  midst  of  this  talk,  young  John 
Winslow  landed  at  Boston  with  the  news  that  a 
rebellion  in  England  had  forced  James  II.  to  flee 
to  France  and  had  called  William  and  Mary  to  the 
throne.  Winslow  had  a  copy  of  William's  Declara 
tion  to  the  People  of  England.  All  Boston  was 
wild  with  excitement  over  it,  but  the  people  were 


A    CHAPTER    ON    REBELLIONS.  363 

still  wilder  with  excitement  when  Andros  clapped 
young  Winslow  into  jail  for  showing'  the  Declara 
tion.  At  that  moment  some  of  their  men,  ragged 
and  hungry,  returned  from  the  garrisons  in  Maine, 
telling  rumors  that  they  had  invented  or  picked  up 
and  declaring  that  they  had  left  their  posts  because 
the  Governor  had  betrayed  them. 

Great  as  the  excitement  was,  the  people  con 
cealed  most  of  it  from  the  Governor.  The  leaders 
of  the  Colony  prepared  at  once  for  rebellion,  but 
took  careful  measures  for  quiet  until  all  was  ready. 
Andros,  however,  saw  enough  to  think  it  prudent 
to  lodge  in  the  fort. 

THE   18th  OF   APRIL,   1689. 

The  unnatural  quiet  was  broken  by  alarm  guns 
on  the  morning  of  the  18th  of  April.  A  force  of 
militia  formed  at  the  end  of  the  town,  and  a  beacon 
was  run  up  on  Beacon  Hill  to  notify  the  militia  of 
the  neighboring  towns  to  be  on  call.  Then  the 
Boston  militia  suddenly  made  prisoners  of  the 
King's  officers,  while  the  leaders  of  the  colonial 
government  which  James  II.  had  destroyed  made 
a  stately  procession  to  the  Town  House. 

A  great  crowd  of  people  filled  the  streets.  They 
raised  a  shout  of  welcome  when  Governor  Brad- 
street  and  others  of  their  former  magistrates  ap- 


364  THE    COLONIES. 

peared  on  the  balcony   of  the  Town  House   and 
announced  their   "Declaration.77     That  was  a  Ions' 

o 

address,  stating  that  the  Colony  was  suffering-  from  ' 
an  illegal  and  oppressive  government,  mentioning 
the  revolution  in  England  and  ending  with  the 
bold  announcement  that  the  government  of  Massa 
chusetts  had  been  taken  out  of  the  hands  of  dan 
gerous  men,  lest  it  should  be  handed  over  to  a 
foreign  power — meaning  James  II. 7s  friend,  Louis 
XIV.  of  France.  The  old  magistrates  said  that 
they  would  take  care  of  the  Colony  until  orders 
were  received  from  the  British  Parliament. 

While  this  long  address  was  being  made,  twenty 
companies  of  militia  paraded  the  streets  of  Boston 
and  many  more  gathered  about  the  capital  from 
all  the  neighboring  towns.  The  fort  was  guarded, 
with  Andros  a  prisoner.  Several  times  he  tried  in 
vain  to  escape,  once  in  woman 7s  clothes.  Some  of 
the  militia  took  possession  of  The  Castle  and  its 
island  in  the  harbor.  The  royal  frigate  Rose  rode 
at  her  anchor  with  colors  set  and  guns  cleared  for 
fight,  but  the  brave  colonists  took  possession  of 
her,  dismantled  her  and  swung  her  off  "  a  harm 
less  and  ridiculous  hulk.77 

The  Magistrates  lost  no  time  in  setting  up  the  old 
government.  When  news  came  of  the  coronation 
of  William  and  Mary,  they  were  proclaimed  by 


A   CHAPTER    ON    REBELLIONS.  365 

their,  loyal  subjects  of  the  Massachusetts  Bay 
Coloii^.  Andros  and  all  James  II. 's  officers  of 
the  Dominion  were  sent  to  England. 

The  colonists  were  all  anxious  to  know  what  the 
new  King  and  Queen  would  do  for  them  or  against 
them.  Their  anxiety  was  soon  relieved  by  orders 
that  they  keep  on  as  they  were  until,  after  three 
years,  they  received  a  Royal  Charter  as  the  Prov 
ince  of  Massachusetts. 

NEW  YORK  UNDER  THE  DOMINION. 

The  New  Yorkers  heard  that  they  had  been 
made  a  part  of  the  Dominion  of  New  England, 
while  they  were  waiting  for  James  II.  to  send  them 
a  charter  for  their  own  government,  which  he  had 
promised  them  as  their  Lord  Proprietor,  the  Duke 
of  York  and  Albany.  But  instead  of  a  charter 
they  received  a  visit  from  Sir  Edmund  Andros  in 
August,  1688.  He  came  with  all  his  pomp,  to 
break  their  seal  and  place  his  Lieutenant-Governor, 
Francis  Nicholson,  over  them.  He  was  welcomed 
by  a  party,  who  were  called  the  "aristocrats/'  be 
cause  they  were  rich  merchants  and  land-owners ; 
they  were  called  also  the  "English,"  because  they 
became  officers  under  the  new  government  and 
accepted  the  Lieutenant-Grovernor  and  all  of  the 
King's  orders  as  if  they  liked  them. 

They  were  opposed    by    what   was    called    the 


366  THE    COLONIES. 

"democrats"  or  Dutch  party,  which  included 
Frenchmen  and  others,  some  rich  and  some  be-- 
long-ing  to  the  poorer  classes,  known  as  "the 
people.77  But  many  of  the  "democrats"  were 
among  the  best  men  in  the  Province.  The  leader 
was  Jacob  Leisler,  a  German,  the  oldest  of  the  six 
captains  of  the  city  militia,  a  rich,  generous  and 
much  respected  man. 

In  the  eventful  April  of  1689,  the  city  was  sud 
denly  thrown  into  an  "  uproar  through  people 
coming  from  Boston"  with  "the  surprising  news 
that  its  inhabitants  had  set  up  a  government  for 
themselves,77  a»d  made  "his  Excellency  Andros77 
a  prisoner,  because  James  II. 's  rule  was  over 
thrown  in  England.  The  uproar  was  quieted  by 
the  best  men  in  the  city,  and  all  agreed  to  wait 
until  it  was  known  whether  the  trouble  in  England 

O 

ended  in  favor  of  James  II.  or  in  favor  of  William 
and  Mary.  But  as  the  fort  was  not  sufficiently 
.well  guarded  by  the  King's  soldiers  (who  had  been 
in  the  city  since  it  was  taken  from  the  Dutch),  the 
city  militia  was  put  on  duty.  All  went  peacefully 
until  Lieutenant-Governor  Xicholson  began  to  act 
as  if  he  commanded  the  militia. 

"LEISLER'S  REBELLION." 

Then  Leisler's  company,  which  took  the  lead 
among  the  others,  said  that  they  would  take  com- 


A    CHAPTER    ON    REBELLIONS. 


367 


mand  of  the  fort  until  the  proper  government  was 
settled  by  the  mother-country.  Captain  Leisler 
refused  to  lead  them  to  take  possession  of  the  fort  ; 
but  after  they  were  there  he  took  his  place  at  their 
head,  which  was,  in  fact,  at  the  head  of  all  the 
militia,  to  see  that  they  did  no  harm.  The  "  aristo 
crats"  declared  that  they  were  the  proper  persons 


FORT  JAMES  AND  THE  STRAND,  NOW  WHITEHALL  STREET. 
Leisler's  house,  with  gable  end  on  the  street. 

to  take  charge  of  the  fort  and  the  entire  Province. 
But  the  militia  companies  would  not  yield  to  them. 
Nicholson  went  to  England,  leaving  Frederick 
Phillipse,  the  richest  man  in  the  city,  Stephen  Van 
Cortlandt,  the  mayor,  and  Nicholas  Bayard,  an 
other  leading  "aristocrat,"  to  stand  up  for  James 
II. 's  broken-down  majesty,  and  to  vent  their  anger 


368  THE    COLONIES. 

against  Leisler.  They  called  him  "  knave," 
"rogue,"  and  all  sorts  of  names,  as  was  then  the 
custom  even  among  gentlemen  when  they  were 
opposed  to  one  another.  They  tried  to  turn  the 
other  captains  against  him  ;  but  the  militia  were 
united  under  Leisler,  doing  their  best,  month  after 
month,  to  keep -the  city  quiet  until  "  rightful  au 
thority  should  come  out  of  England."  At  length 
the  people  were  so  angered  against  the  .' '  aristo 
crats  "  that  a  crowd  fell  upon  Bayard  in  the  street 
and  handled  him  roughly. 

The  captains  in  the  fort  decided  that  they  ought 
to  call  on  all  the  counties  of  the  Province  to  send 
delegates  to  the  fort  to  choose  a  committee  of  safety. 
Some  of  the  counties  answered  this  reasonable  call ; 
but  others  raised  a  great  cry  against  Jacob  Leis- 
ler's  arrogance  in  making  himself  "  dictator  of  New 
York."  The  delegates  who  attended  the  meeting 
elected  a  committee,  who  agreed  to  take  charge 
of  the  Province  until  the  Royal  Government  was 
settled.  This  committee  elected  Leisler  Captain  of 
the  fort. 

LEISLER'S  WISE  AND  GENEROUS  GOVERNMENT. 

As  troubles  grew  worse,  the  Committee  of  Safety 
voted  Leisler  the  military  commander  of  the  Prov 
ince,  and  called  him  the  Lieutenant  -  Governor, 


A    CHAPTER    ON    REBELLIONS.  369 

while  part  of  the  committee — eight  men  of  good 
standing — became  his  Council  in  a  regular  pro 
visional  government. 

Then  the  "  aristocrat  ^  leaders  wanted  to  put 
him  down  more  than  ever ;  but  the  people  soon 
forced  them  to  flee  from  the  town.  The  mob  was 
so  fierce  against  them  that  Leisler  said  he  was 
forced  to  make  prisoners  of  Bayard  and  others  to 
save  their  lives  and  to  protect  the  Province. 

Leisler's  military  company  and  his  government 
kept  control  of  New  York  for  a  scant  two  years. 
Many  pages  of  history  have  been  written  on  Leisler's 
time,  some  to  show  that  he  was  a  martyr  and  some 
to  show  that  he  was  a  villain.  The  records  were 
made  mostly  by  the  leaders  of  the  English  party, 
who  wrote  bitter  and  probably  unfair  accounts  of 
the  most  enlightened  government  that  the  Prov 
ince  of  New  York  ever  enjoyed.  Leisler  called 
an  assembly  which  not  only  represented  the  people, 
but,  for  the  first  time,  used  their  taxes  for  the  bene 
fit  of  the  Province.  Leisler  also  arranged  the  first 
people's  election  of  mayor,  and  took  the  first  im 
portant  steps  towards  the  union  of  all  the  colonies 
by  calling  on  them  to  send  delegates  to  a  Colonial 
Congress,  which  met  in  New  York  in  May,  1690, 
after  an  attack  by  the  French,  which  opened  King 
William  III.'s  war  in  the  Colonies.  The  Freneh 


370 


THE    COLONIES. 


burned  the  frontier  settlement  of  Schenectady. 
Albany  was  in  danger.  No  governor  ever  showed 
greater  energy  in  raising  money  and  men  to  pro 
tect  the  terrified  people,  while  he  spent  large  sums 

out  of  his  own  pocket. 

THE  END  OF   THE  RE 
BELLION. 

In  England  Nicholson 

o 

waited  until  William  and 
Mary  were  seated  upon 
their  uncomfortable 
throne,  and  until  they 
had  formed  the  Planta 
tions  Committee  to  help 
the  Queen  manage  the 
affairs  in  America.  Then 
Nicholson  told  his  story. 
The  Queen  said  he  had 
done  well  in  his  unpleas 
ant  affair,  and  made  him 
Lieutenant  -  Governor  of 
Virginia.  New  York  was 

o 

made  a  Royal  Province 
and  placed  under  Colonel  Henry  Sloughter  as 
Governor  and  Major  Richard  Ingoldsby  as  Lieu- 
tenant-Governor.  Ingoldsby  arrived  first  with  a 


QUEEN  MARY, 
Daughter  of  James  II. 


A    CHAPTER    ON    REBELLIONS. 


371 


body  of  British  soldiers,  but  the  papers  to  show 
his  authority  were  all  in  Sloughter's  vessel,  which 
was  delayed  nearly  three  months. 

Leisler's  enemies  were  so  anxious  to  overthrow 
him  that  they  in 
duced  Ingoldsby  to 
bring  his  soldiers 
ashore  at  once.  He 
took  possession  of 
the  City  Hall,  but 
Leisler  refused  to 
give  up  the  fort  and 
his  prisoners  until  he 
saw  the  Royal  or 
ders.  A  crowd  in  the 
streets,  taking  the 
side  of  the  riewly- 
arrivecl  officer,  at 
tacked  the  fort,  the 
guard  fired  on  them 
without  L  e  i  s  1  e  r's 
knowledge,  killing  a 
Royal  soldier  and  a 
negro.  Ingoldsby  wrote  an  angry  letter  to  Leis 
ler,  who  replied  with  dignity  that  the  men  who 
fired  the  shots  should  be  punished  if  they  could  be 
found,  saying:  "God  forbid  that  any  man  under 


KING  WILLIAM  III., 
Prince  of  Oranire. 


372  THE    COLONIES. 

my  command  should  be  countenanced  in  an  ill 
act!" 

The  little  city  was  more  like  a  field  of  battle  than 
ever,  with  the  militia  on  one  side  and  the  new 
troops  of  regulars  on  the  other  ;  there  was  no  more 
bloodshed ;  but  there  was  tumult  and  panic  until 
Governor  Sloughter  arrived.  Then  Leisler  yielded 
the  fort  and  his  prisoners,  and  allowed  the  chains 
taken  from  them  to  be  placed  on  himself,  on  his 
son-in-law,  Jacob  Milborne,  and  on  "the  persons 
called  his  Council." 

The  triumphant  aristocrats  charged  "the  Leisler- 
ites"  with  treason  and  murder,  held  the  mere  form 
of  a  trial  and  found  them  guilty,  although  King 
William  and  Queen  Mary  had  sent  no  orders 
against  them.  The  new  Council  and  Assembly 
urged  Sloughter  to  sign  the  death-warrant  of 
Leisler  and  Milborne  without  delay.  A  great 
many  citizens  begged  him  not  to  do  so  ;  but  he 
did,  and  they  were  hanged. 

After  four  years  Leisler's  son  was  allowed  to  lay 
the  whole  sad  matter  before  the  King  and  Queen 
in  spite  of  all  the  "aristocrats"  could  do  to  hinder 
him.  Then  the  men  who  had  been  in  Leisler's 
Council  were  released  from  prison  ;  the  property 
of  all  "the  rebels"  was  given  back  to  them  or 
their  families  ;  and  the  poor,  disgraced  bodies  of  the 


A   CHAPTER    ON    REBELLIONS.  373 

hanged  patriots  were  taken  from  the  common 
fields  where  they  had  been  buried,  and  after  a 
solemn  ceremony  in  the  Old  Dutch  Church,  they 
were  laid  in  the  church-yard,  while  their  names 
were  cleared  from  the  stain  of  treason  so  far 
as  an  act  of  Parliament  could  clear  them  by  declar 
ing  that  Leisler's  conduct  had  been  for  the  public 
good  and  that  his  yielding  of  the  fort  to  Sloughter 
had  been  "gracious  and  in  due  time."  With  the 
reigri  of  William  and  Mary  began  the  long  series 
of  wars  with  Canada,  which  was  the  beginning  of 
a  new  struggle  which  ended  only  when  the  colonists 
won  the  country  for  their  own. 


PRONOUNCING  VOCABULARY, 


Abenakis, 

Agamenticus, 

Ahasimus, 

Albemarle, 

Algonquin-Lenape, 

Amelia,, 

Apachee, 

Baggataway, 

Barbadoes, 

Barclay, 

Benbecula, 

Bermuda, 

Beversrede, 

Binckes, 

Cacique, 

Caribbees, 

Catawbas, 

Chattahoochee, 

Cherokee, 

Chicasaws, 

Chicahominees, 

Chowan, 

Chygoes, 

Claiborne, 

Communipau, 

Culloden, 

Curacoa, 


a-ben'a-kis. 
asr-a-men'ti-kus. 

o 

a-has'i-mus.  ; 

ai'be-marl. 

al-gon'kwin-le-nape. 

a-me'li-a. 

a-pa'che. 

bag-gat'a-way. 

bar'ba-dos. 

bar'clay. 

ben-be-koTa. 

ber-mu'da. 

be'vers-rede. 

binks. 

ka-sek'. 

kar'ib-bez. 

ka-ta'bas. 

chat-ta-lioo'che. 

cher'o-ke'. 

chick-a-saws'. 

chic-a-hom'i-nez. 

cho-waii'. 

chi'gos. 

clay 'born. 

com-mu'ni-paw. 

kul-lo'den. 

ku-ra-so'. 
375 


376 


PRONOUNCING  VOCABULARY. 


De  la  Werre, 

de'la-wer. 

Ebenezer, 

eb-en-e'zer. 

Elsinborough, 

el'sin-bur'o. 

Georgeana, 

jor'ji-an'a. 

Gloucester, 

glos-ter. 

Gotheborg, 

gurt'e-borg. 

Grotius, 

gro'shi-us. 

Hackensacks, 

hack'en-sacks. 

Henlopen, 

hen'lo-pen. 

Iroquois, 

ir'6-kwoi. 

Jacobites, 

jak'o-blts. 

Jesuit, 

jez'u-it. 

Kiccowtan, 

kic'co-tan. 

Kieft, 

keft. 

Kennebec, 

ken'ne-bek. 

Leisure, 

le'zhur. 

Leni-Lenapes, 

lenT-len-apes'. 

Leyden, 

H'den. 

Lieutenant, 

loo-ten'ant. 

Lygonia, 

li-go'ni-a. 

Manhatta, 

man-hat'ta. 

Massasoit, 

mas-a-soit'. 

Mauritius, 

ma-rish'i-us. 

Metacomet, 

met-a-com'et. 

Miantinomo, 

me-an-ti-no'mo. 

Minquas, 

min'kwas. 

Minsi, 

min'se. 

Minuit, 

min'u-it. 

Mohicans, 

mo-he'kans. 

Monhegan, 

mon-he'gan. 

Moravians, 

mo-ra'vi-ans. 

Muskogi, 

mus-ko-ge. 

PRONOUNCING  VOCABULARY, 


377 


Narragansetts, 

nar-ra-gan'  setts. 

Navesink, 

nav'e-sink. 

Neuse, 

nus. 

Nipmucks, 

nip'miiks. 

Nyantics, 

ni-an'tiks. 

Ogechee, 

o-ge'che. 

Oglethorpe, 

o'g'l-thorp. 

Oneida, 

6-ni'da. 

Opekankano, 

o-pe-kan-kan'6. 

Oplandt, 

op'lant. 

Oxenstiern, 

oks'en-stern. 

Paauw, 

pow. 

Palatine, 

para-tin. 

Palatinate, 

pal-lat'i-nat. 

Pamlico, 

pam'li-ko. 

Pamunkey, 

pa-mun'key. 

Patrooneries, 

pa-troon'er-iz. 

Patuxent, 

pa-tux'ent. 

Pemaquid, 

pem'a-kwid. 

Pequots, 

pe'kwots. 

Ployden, 

ploi'den. 

Pocahontas, 

po-ka-hon'tas. 

Porpoise, 

por'pus. 

Potomac, 

po-to'mak'. 

Powhatan, 

pou-ha-tan'. 

Proprietors, 

pro-prfe-ters. 

Put-in  Bay, 

put'in  bay. 

Quahogs, 

kwa'hogs. 

Quinsigamond, 

kwin-sig'a-mond 

Raritans, 

rar'i-taris. 

Rensselaerwyck, 

rens'se-ler-wik. 

Reynolds, 

ren'olz. 

378 


PRONOUNCING   VOCABULARY. 


Sachem, 

sa'chem. 

Sagadahoc, 

sag'a-da-hoc'. 

Sakimaxing, 

sak-i-max'ing. 

Sassacus, 

sas'sa-kus. 

Santee, 

san-te' 

Savannah, 

sa-van'a. 

Schepens, 

skep'ens. 

Schuylkill, 

skool'kil. 

Seignor, 

sen-yer. 

Sewanhacky, 

soo-an-hack'y. 

Sowams, 

so-wams'. 

St.  Croix, 

saint-croy'. 

Stuyvesant, 

stl've-sant. 

Susquehanna, 

sus-kwe-han'a. 

Susquehanoughs, 

sus-kwe-han'os. 

Tarantines, 

tar'ran-tens. 

Taw, 

taw. 

Tawasentha, 

ta-wa-sen'tha. 

Tomo  Chichi, 

tom'o  chi'chi. 

Tuscarora, 

tus'ka-ro'ra. 

Uchee, 

oo'che. 

Uncas, 

un'kas 

Van  Corlear, 

van  cor'lear. 

Van  Dyck, 

van  dik'. 

Van  Rensslaer, 

van  rens'se-ler. 

Varsche, 

varsh'^. 

Wahunsunakak, 

wa-hoon-soon'a-kak. 

Wampanoag, 

wam-pa-no'ag. 

Warasutta, 

wam-sut'ta. 

Weir, 

wer. 

Wessagusset, 

wes-sa-gus'set. 

Westoes, 

west'os. 

PRONOUNCING  VOCABULARY.        379 


Wroithelsey,  royth'el-sy. 

Wyatt,  wfat. 

Yamacraw,  yam'a-kra. 

Yamessee,  yam'es-se. 

Yeamans,  ye'manz. 

Yeardly,  yerd'li. 

Yoacomocos,  yo-ak-o-mo'cos. 

Zuanandael,  tswan-an'dal. 


CEIT1Y  BUSY  1 01. 

TKIlbat  tbe  iprimarp  Geacbers 
1ba\>e  Been  OLooJung  ]for. 


squirrels 


squirrels 


Entirely  Ne\v,  Entertaining  and 
I  nstructi  ve. 


THE  PHONETIC  READER. 

BY  CHARLES  W.  DEANE,  PH.  D., 

SUPT.   OF  SCHOOLS,    BRIDGEPORT,  CONN. 


EASY  AND  RAPID  METHOD  FOR  TEACHING  READING. 

HIGH-ART  ILLUSTRATIONS,  CHOICE  LITERATURE. 

RESULTS  FROM  USE  COMMEND  THIS  BOOK. 
Mailing  Price  40  Cents.     Liberal  Discount  t_o  Schools. 

Orville  T.  Bright,  Supt.  Schools,  Cook  Co.,  111.—"  I  wish  to  say  that  I  think 
the  book  a  genuine  contribution  to  the  teaching  of  little  children,  I  am  delighted 
with  it.  You  have  done  what  nobody  else  has — placed  the  subject  of  phonics  in 
its  proper  relation  to  the  literature  that  should  enter  into  a  first  reader.  In  other 
words,  whoever  reads  this  book  through  will  have  uppermost  in  his  mind,  as  it 
should  be,  the  reading  lessons,  that  is  the  substance  of  the  lessons,  not  the  man 
ner  of  presenting  them.  I  believe  you  have  handled  the  subject  of  phonics  better 
than  anybody  else  in  cold  print.  The  best  part  of  it  all  is,  as  I  have  indicated, 
that  it  is  subordinate.  As  a  teacher  of  long  experience,  and  a  man  whose  whole 
interest  in  life  is  connected  with  schools,  I  wish  to  thank  you  for  having  written 
the  book." 

W.  A.  McCord,  County  Supt.,  Polk  Co.,  Des  Moines.,  la. — "I  find  that 
Deane's  '  Phonetic  Reader'  meets  my  ideas  to  a  dot." 

The  editor  of  one  of  the  large  educational  companies  writes:  "  'The  Phonetic 
Reader'  is  the  best  thing  of  its  kind  yet  published.  Mr.  Deane  has  surely  used 
the  best  there  is  in  all  other  systems,  and  in  the  word  and  sentence  method." 

Cyrus  Boger,  Supt.  Schools,  Lebanon,  Pa. — "In  Deane's  '  Phonetic  Reader' 
the  truth  that  the  child  must  first  learn  to  read  before  it  can  read  to  learn,  is  fully 
recognized.  The  method  is  most  excellent,  and  the  reproductions  from  great 
artists  emphasize  the  fact  that  a  child's  book  ought  to  contain  the  best  in  art  as 
well  as  in  literature." 

H.  E.  Bennett,  Principal,  Fernandina,  Fla. — "Your  primary  books  are  the 
finest  I  have  ever  seen.  Much  credit  is  due  you  for  putting  such  works  of  art  in 
the  hands  of  children.  Our  primary  teachers  are  delighted  with  them,  especially 
Deane's  '  Phonetic  Reader.'  " 

Lewis  E.  Funnell,  Prin.  Stamford  Public  Schools,  Stamford,  Conn. — "  I  am 
very  much  pleased  with  Deane's  'Phonetic  Reader.'  Its  plan  is  in  perfect  har 
mony  with  the  correct  ideas  of  teaching  reading." 

Chas.  Eldred  Shelton,  Supt.  City  Schools,  Burlington,  la. — "  This  is  an  excel 
lent  piece  of  text-book  work.  A  gem  in  its  line." 

Chas.  Emerson,  County  Supt.,  Creston,  la. — "It  is  the  best  of  tf*  dnd  I 
ever  saw." 

THE  MORSE  COMPANY...PTJBLISHERS, 

MAIN  OFFICE:    96  FIFTH  AVE.,  NEW  YORK. 

Chicago  Office:  195  and  197  Wabash  Ave.  Boston  Office:  36  Bromfield  St. 


MORSE  SPELLER. 

BY  SAMUEL  T.  DUTTON, 

SUPERINTENDENT  OF  SCHOOLS,   BROOKLINE,  MASS. 


A  NATURAL,  INTERESTING  AND  ECONOMICAL  METHOD  OF 
TEACHING  WORDS. 

THE  CORRELATION  OF  SPELLING  WITH  GEOGRAPHY,  HISTORY, 
SCIENCE  AND  LITERATURE. 

Mailing  Price,  Complete,  30  Cents.     Liberal  discount  to  Schools. 
Part  I,  75  Cents;  Part  II,  20  Cent*. 

Dr.  C.  H.  Levermore,  Pres.  Adelphi  College,  Brooklyn,  N.  Y.— "  I  am  much 
impressed  with  the  plan  of  the  '  Morse  Speller.'  It  seems  to  me  that  the  principle 
of  basing  spelling  work  on  the  lessons  in  geography,  history  and  science,  is  the 
right  one.  In  general,  I  think  that  this  book  has  a  more  sensible  plan  than  that 
of  any  other  spelling  book  I  know." 

W.  F.  Gordy,  Supervising  Prin.  Public  Schools,  Hartford,  Conn. — "The 
4  Morse  Speller'  is  almost  an  ideal  book.  Its  plan  is  in  every  way  sensible  and 
practical,  and  its  intelligent  use  must  lead  to  the  best  results  in  the  school-room." 

W.  E.  Bates,  Supt.  Schools,  Fall  River,  Mass.— "  The  'Morse  Speller'  i-  an 
excellent  book.  Dictation  ought  to  be  the  principal  feature  of  instruction  in 
spelling,  and  in  this  book  it  is  made  so." 

Eva  D.  Kellogg,  Editor  "Primary  Education,"  Evanston,  111. — "I  like  the 
-Morse  Speller,'  and  am  going  to  advise  the  readers  of  '  Primary  Education  '  to 
buy  it." 

J.  A.  Shawan,  Supt.  Schools,  Columbus,  Ohio.—"  It  was  supposed  that  great 
progress  had  been  made  when  oral  spelling  gave  place  to  written.  The  '  Morse 
Speller'  carries  the  idea  further  in  emphasizing  the  spelling  of  words  in  their 
proper  relation  to  other  words  in  sentences.  The  excellent  exercises  for  dictation 
will  prove  valuable  drills  in  the  proper  forms  of  written  language.  The  introduc 
tion  of  words  at  the  proper  time  which  have  a  bearing  upon  other  subjects  under 
consideration,  has  been  admirably  managed.  I  congratulate  you  on  the  work, 
and  wish  you  success." 

Mark  Pitman,  Prin.  Choate  School,  Wallingford,  Conn — "  I  like  the  'Morse 
Speller'  so  much  that  I  shall  adopt  it  for  use  in  my  school.  In  compiling,  the 
author  has  so  thoroughly  eliminated  technical  words  seldom  used,  that  nothing  is 
left  which  the  pupil  in  our  grammar  schools  can  afford  to  omit,  while  the  princi 
ples  of  correlation  and  association  of  ideas  are  more  fully  carried  out  than  in  any 
other  speller  that  I  am  acquainted  with.  It  is  certainly  an  up-to-date  book." 


THE  MORSE  OOMPANY...PUBLISHERS, 

MAIN  OFFICE:   96  FIFTH  AVE,,  NEW  YORK. 
Chicago  Office:  195  and  197  Wabash  Ave,  Boston  Office:  36  Bromfield  St, 


NATURE'S    BYWAYS. 

By  NELLIE  WALTON  FORD. 

Natural  Science  for  Primary  Pupils,  beautifully  illustrated  by  repro 
ductions  from  Great  Artists ;  Literature,  a  Juvenile  Poem. 

Mailing  Price,  400.        Liberal  Discount  to  Schools. 


B.  M.  Phelan,  Prin.  St.  Paul  Teachers'/Training  School.— Please  send  enclosed  order 
for  "  Nature's  Byways  "  for  use  in  first  grade.  We  have  wanted  a  book  of  this  kind  for  use  in 
connection  with' our  nature  study,  and  I  am  glad  you  have  succeeded  in  putting  Miss  Ford's 
lessons  in  so  attractive  a  form. 

Prof.  M.  V.  O'Shea,  School  of  Pedagogy,  University  of  Buffalo,  N.  Y.— I  am  par 
ticularly  pleased  with  "  Nature's  Byways."  I  have  no  hesitation  in  saying  that  it  appears  to 
be  a  delightful  book,  and  most  happily  adapted  for  beginners  in  reading.  The  selections  seem 
well  chosen  and  admirably  arranged.  The  book  emphasizes  the  thought  side  in  reading,  and 
minimizes  the  attention  which  is  given  to  purely  formal  drills  upon  words.  The  illustrations 
are  especially  to  be  praised.  I  feel  certain  that  you  have  produced  a  culture  book  for  children. 
Mechanically  it  is  perfect. 

Richard  C.  Boone,  Prin.  Michigan  State  Normal  School,  Ypsilanti,  Mich.— I  have 
examined  "Nature's  Byways  "  with  great  satisfaction.  Among  all  books  on  natural  science 
for  children,  especially  for  the  younger  children,  this  seems  to  me  one  of  the  sanest  and  most 
practical.  It  is  admirable  in  its  subject  matter  and  not  less  satisfactory  in  its  arrangement. 
I  congratulate  you  and  the  author  upon  so  great  success  in  presenting  the  natural  sciences 
to  children. 

Mary  F.  Hall,  Primary  Supervisor,  Public  Schools,  Milwaukee,  Wis.— Of  all  the 
books  I  have  seen  that  are  based  on  the  idea  of  relating  the  early  reading  lessons  to  the  les 
sons  on  nature  objects,  "  Nature's  Byways  "  seems  the  most  widely  useful  to  all  teachers, 
both  in  its  selection  and  treatment  of  matter.  The  high  art  illustrations,  as  well  as  its  gen 
eral  artistic  features,  make  the  book  one  of  unusual  merit. 

Rev.  A.  E.  Winship,  Editor  "Journal  of  Education."— This  charmingly  illustrated 
book  is  admirably  adapted  to  interest  young  children  in  natural  science.  It  is,  in  a  sense,  a 
graded  reader,  stimulating  to  nature  study.  The  language  chosen  is  almost  classical  in  tits 
purity  and  simplicity.  Each  lesson  becomes  a  model  for  the  young  pupil  to  follow  in  writing 
his  own  description  of  leaves,  flowers,  fruits,  animals  and  things  in  nature.  The  reproduc 
tions  of  the  great  artists  are  so  accurately  described  in  the  text,  as  to  become  real  lessons  in 
art. 

AnnaM.  Nolte,  Kindergartner,  Hardy  School,  Duluth,  Minn.— I  heartily  recommend 
"Nature's  By  ways  "  for  its  simplicity,  its  artistic  nature,  and  clear,  positive  style  of  ex 
pressing  thought,  helping  the  child  to  understand  nature  aright. 

Mary  Louise  Eastman,  Prin.  Primary  Dept.,  State  Normal  School,  Cortland,  N.  Y. 
—We  endorse  "  Nature's  Byways"  most  heartily,  and,  as  proof,  we  have  ordered  a  number  of 
copies. 

Marietta  Mathews,  Primary  Dept.,  Public  Schools,  Worcester,  Mass.— The  beau 
tiful  book,  "  Nature's  Byways,"  received.  All  the  teachers  think  it  charming. 

Marietta  L.  Pierce,  Prin.  Primary  Dept.,  Normal  School,  Mankato,  Minn.— I  am 
exceedingly  well  pleased  with  "  Nature's  Byways."  It  is  a  gem  as  to  style,  and  the  sentences, 

ed  to  first  grade  work.  lam  delighted  with  the 


in  my  judgment,  are  particularly  well  adapted 
illustrations,  especially  the  reproduction  from 
great  value  in  any  primary  school.  We  shall  use  it  in  our  school. 


llustrations,  especially  the  reproduction  from  great  artists.    I  believe  the  book  will  be  of 
rimary  school.     We  shall  use  it  ir 


ADOPTED  IN  NEW  YORK  CITY,  BROOKLYN,  NEWARK,    JERSEY  CITY,  BUFFALO, 
PHILADELPHIA,  BOSTON,  CHICAGO,  ETC. 

The  Universal  Verdict  is  that  "  Nature's  Byways  "  is  the  "Best 
Natural  Science  Reader  in  print. 


MAIN  OFFICE:  96  FIFTH  AVENUE,  NEW  YORK. 
Chicago  Office:   195  and  197  Wabash  Ave.  Boston  Office:  36  Bromfield  St. 


HISTORICAL  READER 

THE  STORY  OF  THE  INDIANS  OF  NEW  ENGLAND. 

BY  ALMA  HOLMAN  BURTON. 


A  PIONEER  BOOK.     COVERS  AN  UNBEATEN  TRACK. 

WITH  16  FULL-PAGE  AUTHENTIC  ILLUSTRATIONS. 

I2mo,  Cloth,  6j  Cents.     Liberal  Discount  to  Schools. 

IN  a  History  of  the  United  States,  the  fate  of  the  Indians  is  only  an- 
incident  in  the  settlement  of  the  country. 

The  theme  of  the  historian  is  the  white  man ;  and  so  marvellous  is 
the  national  drama,  so  dazzling  are  the  achievements  of  the  Puritan  and 
Cavalier,  that  the  Red  Man  has  little  more  space  in  our  annals  than  the 
primeval  forest  which  once  covered  the  continent. 

The  author  has  treated  the  subject  of  the  Indians  historically.  A  few 
chapters  have  been  devoted  to  the  early  Colonial  life,  because  the  growth 
and  development  of  the  Puritan  marks  the  decline  and  exile  of  the 
Algonquins. 

For  the  study,  in  an  attractive  form,  of  the  annals  of  the  once  proud 
race  whose  broken  fragments  still  linger  in  the  rays  of  the  setting  sun, 
this  book  seems  eminently  fitted,  with  its  choice  language,  as  a  Supple 
mentary  Reader  for  the  middle  grades  in  all  of  our  public  schools. 


TESTIMONIALS. 

A.  S.  Draper,  President  University  of  Illinois. — "  It  is  a  fascinating  contribu 
tion  to  New  England  literature,  upon  a  subject  which  is  admirably  adapted  for 
school  work." 

Wm.  T.  Harris,  Commissioner,  Bureau  of  Education,  Washington,  D,  C.— 
"  This  is  a  most  valuable  book  for  school  work  on  the  subject  of  the-  Indians  and 
Colonial  times." 

THE  MORSE  COMPANY... PUBLISHERS, 

MAIN  OFFICE:    96  FIFTH  AVE.,  NEW  YORK. 
Chicago  Office:  195  and  197  \V abash  Ave.  .Boston  Office:  36  Bromfield  St. 


UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA  LIBRARY 
BERKELEY 

Return  to  desk  from  which  borrowed. 
This  book  is  DUE  on  the  last  date  stamped  below. 


25Nov'53Vl 
NOV1  11953  LI 


REC'D  LD 
SEP  17  1956 

9Jul'58j  N& 


JUU 


-C5 


• 

LD  21-ldOm*l/,'52(A2528sl6)476 


l2Dec'62f?V 


3  0  I** 
JUL  29  1980 

REC.CIR.JUL1  6  '80 


